It has been officially confirmed that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is not budging on the Feb. 18, 2008, deadline for allowing the shutdown of the analog mobile phone services (AMPS) used for cellular-based alarm communications.
Now that all appeals have been exhausted, security companies and their subscribers who rely on AMPS analog cellular services must find an alternative communication method before Feb. 18, 2008.
The Sunset Clause date is fast approaching. Alarm dealers who still have not made plans or begun to replace their AMPS units may be left without service. Those who still rely on AMPS services and have not yet found a suitable replacement need to plan now. Options are available, but switching out all remaining AMPS units will take time. All viable options have benefits and drawbacks and will take time, but first the options must be weighed and a decision made soon.
The alarm communication alternatives to AMPS include:
- telephone lines,
- the Internet,
- digital cellular telephone service, and
- wireless mesh alarm communications.
To examine these choices and determine which makes most sense, the criteria most commonly used would include costs, system capacity, signaling speed, reliability, means of system compromise, types of alarm data sent and maintenance considerations.
Using these criteria, the accompanying table shows a representative comparison of available alarm communication alternatives to AMPS. The data contained in this table may be useful to determine which of these alternatives makes the most sense for a particular dealer and his or her customer base.
Regardless of which technology alternative is chosen, each dealer needs to plan effectively and allot the time needed to convert all AMPS sites. To get a sense of the amount of resources required for this process, alarm dealers need to ask themselves the following questions and perform the calculation that follows:
A = How many existing installed AMPS sites do we have?
B = How many installers do we have available?
C = How many AMPS units can be installed per installer per day?
D = What are the number of work days between today and Feb. 18, 2008?
A divided by B divided by C = the number of business days needed to complete. This number should be compared to D to determine if you have enough time and/or installers to complete the AMPS conversion.
