What is changing
Phone carriers have been given permission to stop maintaining traditional copper (POTS) lines and move customers to fiber, VoIP or wireless service. Those replacement services are fine for voice calls, but many alarm panels were designed to dial out over a real copper pair. On VoIP the signal may be garbled, delayed or not delivered at all.
Why it matters for fire alarms
A monitored fire alarm has to deliver its alarm, supervisory and trouble signals to a central station reliably. If the line silently stops working, the panel may show a communication trouble that nobody notices — and the fire department won't be called. Inspectors and insurers increasingly check this.
What to check
- Does your fire panel, sprinkler monitoring or elevator phone use phone lines from the carrier?
- Has your phone bill or service changed recently (fiber, "digital voice", VoIP)?
- Is there a communication or "phone line" trouble on the panel?
- When did the monitoring center last receive a test signal?
The fix
A UL-listed cellular or IP/cellular communicator connects to your existing panel and replaces both phone lines. In most cases the panel does not need to be replaced, and the monthly cost is lower than the two lines it replaces. We install and test the communicator and confirm signals with the central station the same day.
Your local fire official (the AHJ) decides what communication methods are acceptable for your building, and we coordinate that as part of the job.