During the spate of trade shows this fall, including ASIS and ISC East, Honeywell Security and Custom Electronics brought out a new line of products that the company deems is the start of something big.

“I believe that this is the most important change since the digital dialer,” said Ron Rothman, Honeywell Security’s president, in an exclusive interview with SDM.

Honeywell Security claims its new offering is the alarm industry’s first line of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology products that use dual and triple communication paths to ensure highly reliable alarm transmission.

Honeywell’s radios, which use General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and the Internet as primary communication paths, are designed to meet the needs of the future, expand the dealer’s customer base, and increase recurring monthly revenue (RMR).

Additionally, this end-to-end solution in combination with the AlarmNet wireless alarm communication network will help dealers seamlessly transition customers to the latest digital technology, as current radios that use analog Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) networks are phased out. Already dwindling, the use of analog systems is expected to further decline after Feb. 18, 2008, the date on which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has said cellular carriers can discontinue support of the AMPS networks – known as the “Sunset Clause.”

“There are two major trends colliding at the same time – a technology trend and a demographic trend. With the technology trend, the vision is that technology is driving the phone line away through VoIP and cell phones. With the demographic trend, we’re the last generation of people who will have a [traditional telephone] line in the kitchen,” Rothman said, explaining that today’s young adults won’t be tied down to getting their communication and information from one place or device. “They want information instantly and they want to pick the content,” Rothman said.

“These ground-breaking products offer customers a complete, long-term solution to challenges presented by the Sunset Clause, Voice over Internet Protocol, and premises without phone lines, while giving dealers a new opportunity to grow their businesses,” Rothman continued.

Existing Honeywell analog cellular alarm radios can be replaced easily with the newest GSM GPRS technology. The dual-path technology (model 7845GSM) utilizes GPRS as the primary communication path with Short Message Service (SMS) as the backup communication path. GPRS is a reliable wireless communication method widely used in the cell phone market. It has a higher priority in the cellular network to minimize transmission delays and increases the amount of data that can be reliably delivered. Honeywell also offers a triple-path technology radio (model 7845i-GSM) that adds Internet communication to the GRPS and SMS signals.

This communication technology allows for new alarm service capabilities. For instance, it enables users to control an alarm system via cell phone using text messaging, a laptop computer or a Web-enabled PDA.

“We believe that in the industry – for the first time since the digital dialer – there is tremendous opportunity to upgrade if you seize it, or it could be a risk if you don’t,” Rothman said, adding that he believes this is the best time to be in the alarm business because of the dramatic shift to new platforms — Internet and digital cellular — and away from old POTS lines. “As time goes on, the Internet line will replace the phone line as free communication the alarm dealer has enjoyed,” he added.

“The value of monitored accounts is going to be dramatically impacted by having an end-to-end solution. The end-user being able to have this level of connectivity is the end-to-end solution. And it gives end users what they want...choices — what to do, when to do it.”

For more information, visit www.security.honeywell.com.