SECURITY SYSTEMS
3G MODULES WILL ALLOW SECURITY PROVIDERS TO CONTINUE TO MEET AUSTRALIAN STANDARDS FOR ALARM UPTIME DURING BLACKOUTS. THEY ARE AVAILABLE AS ADD-ONS FOR MANY ALARMS, EVEN THOSE THAT WERE NOT ORIGINALLY PLANNED WITH
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WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY IN MIND.
powered devices throughout the copper street network. Although NBN Co will no doubt deploy some batteries in the field to meet its national availability targets, it probably won’t cover every single line in every single circumstance. As a result, the security industry won’t be able to rely on its equipment being able to make calls over an NBN service during a local power blackout. Analog telephony products will also no longer be offered - only voice over internet protocol (VoIP) fixed-line phone services will be offered. As VoIP encodes audio into a digital form and then slices the audio into data packets and sends them over the internet, it can’t be assumed that equipment that worked well on the analog copper network will work exactly the same way over a VoIP service. NBN Co does have a test lab in Melbourne where equipment can be tested free of charge against the various providers’ VoIP services over the NBN fibre network, but with the upcoming FTTN and cable networks, this will add a great many test scenario permutations into the mix. Additionally, because analog phone services are being discontinued, once a user switches over to the NBN, any existing phone sockets in a home or business will no longer be connected to a phone service. If a customer wanted to keep their alarm connected to a fixed-line phone service, a registered cabler would need to
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attend and reconnect their existing phone sockets to the voice port on the new modem. All these factors combined mean that wireless (3G/4G - bearing in mind Telstra has announced the shutdown of the 2G network in 2016) becomes a very attractive and viable migration path for existing security alarm systems in NBN switchover areas. New security installations would also benefit from using a wireless alarm transmission solution. This method allows the security system to operate independently of the service provided by the RSP and is not compromised by any changes in their service offering. 3G modules will allow security providers to continue to meet Australian Standards for alarm uptime during blackouts. They are available as add-ons for many alarms, even those that were not originally planned with wireless connectivity in mind. To find out more about the best options for the alarms that you service, speak to your hardware supplier. The service call, hardware and attendant data costs involved with this will be an issue for many in our industry. However, it also provides a good opportunity to engage with your customers with new offerings. For example, security companies providing monitoring services could consider offering customers a new contract by bundling the upfront cost into a 24- or 36-month monitoring contract. With the decision to roll out a Multi-Technology Mix model, expect to see a marked pick-up in the rollout of the NBN over the coming year.
Important information for cablers The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) requires any cabler performing specialised cabling work - aerial, underground, optical fibre, structured, co-axial or broadband - to hold the necessary competencies relevant to performing that cabling work. Significant penalties apply. ASIAL is a cabling registrar accredited by the ACMA to offer cabling registration services under the Telecommunications Act 1997. ASIAL www.asial.com.au
MARCH/APRIL 2015 - ECD SOLUTIONS 25