The Safety & Security Blog

By Allan B. Colombo
www.facebook.com/al.colombo

Within a few years, the security industry will face another significant challenge similar to the sunset of analog cellular with respect to cellular-based central station reporting. This challenge involves the transition of today’s 2G cellular-based reporting systems to that of 3G.

According to Shawn Welsh, VP of Marketing and Business Development for Telular in Atlanta, Georgia, there are currently well over two million cellular units in existence and most of them will not make the transition from 2G to 3G. This includes both back-up and primary cellular services.

“During the Analog Sunset you were dealing with low penetration of true cell backup. Nowadays, there is a much deeper penetration of cell primary because of landline elimination. There are easily well over two million of these units being monitored today as cell primary,” says Welsh.

The switch from analog to 2G digital resulted in faster signaling speeds and greater bandwidth. The same effect will take place when cellular carriers switch from 2G to 3G. When that happens, today’s GSM- and GPRS-based cellular alarm reporting units will become obsolete. Although it would make more sense for cellular carriers (cellulars) to make their new technologies compatible with former ones, it appears that this is not the case (where’s the FCC when you really need them?).

There are several possible solutions to those dealers who now have 2G working units in the field making them recurring monthly revenue (RMR). One of them is to upgrade your clients to 3G now, in preparation for the oncoming 2G Sunset date. A second option is to go with an established, dedicated (private) or public radio system. A third possibility is to go broadband.

“Now here is the problem. People are doing away with landlines. The cell companies.want you to use your cell phone for everything.That is why they went from analog cellular service to 2G–more traffic, more money. Now, they are about to make the transition from 2G to 3G–more traffic, more money. And then they will go to 4G,” says Robert Lee Rupley III.

What Rupley is saying is that no matter what you do, when dealing with cellular you will be faced with changing your client’s from one cellular technology to another every so many years.

For example, in 2009 we saw the sunset of analog cellular technology. Those of you who were there know how difficult it was to tell your existing client base that the cellular unit they bought from you a few years before was about to become an antique and that they would now have to purchase another cellular unit if they wanted cellular backup or primary service. In many cases that was a tremendously hard task and an equally difficult sale.

Rupley says that the answer to this is to go with a technology that does not change, one that has a proven track record. For him, the answer is a dedicated radio network, such as AES of Peabody, MA.

Rupley also says that AES systems offer greater signaling redundancy.

“Cell phones will only talk to one cell tower at a time, whereas AES will talk to up to 8 different radios or towers at the same time,” says Rupley.

I can assure you, this blog posting is not meant to be an endorsement or advertisement for AES radio. Instead, my intent is to stress to alarm dealers far and wide that cellular-based reporting systems may offer an immediate solution with little up-front investment, but on the long term you will have to face your clients again and again with the same story. Can you begin to imagine how your clients will react to this?

There are other options, AES being one of them. Dedicated private and public radio systems are available that utilize central towers with an assortment of repeater antennas throughout the coverage area. AES technology, on the other hand, uses each subscriber signaling unit as a repeater, eliminating the need to install specific repeater towers and antennas.

Broadband may one day become a widespread option with the advent of community-wide WiFi systems. In this case, alarm signals will travel from the client’s alarm system to the central station through the Internet, much as they do now in systems that utilize dedicated broadband connections through cable and telephone company DSL systems.

This writer, on learning of the 2G Sunset issue, switched the firm I formerly managed to Telular’s 3G system because 2G is ultimately a dead end. My decision was based on the fact that administration would not opt to buy tower space nor would they wish to invest in a franchised private radio system. Perhaps in the future this could be a possibility, but for now management decided that it was more profitable and sensible to switch our clients from 2G to 3G.

While interviewing Telular’s Shawn Welsh for this story, I asked what the official date of the 2G Sunset is. Here is his reply:

“To be clear, the 2G Sunset has already started. In other words, today we are seeing the effects of 2G becoming less available. Starting in 2011, in an effort to increase service levels to their consumer cell phone customers, cellular carriers started to make their preferred frequencies 3G only. The process is called spectrum harvesting, in where 2G devices are not allowed to be on the best frequencies.

“As far as the official date for the completion of the 2G Sunset, we can only make inferences based on changes by carriers and historical evidence from previous Sunsets to predict the estimated end date for 2G. One such ‘clue’ is that major cellular carriers officially stopped certifying 2G devices in 2011. This effectively halted the launch of any new commercial 2G devices and forced future products to use 3G from 2012 forward. Consumer devices—harder to purge from active circulation—underwent an identical ban long ago.

“From a historical perspective, Whenever a cellular carrier launches a new technology that shares spectrum with an older technology, the older technology will become obsolete and will sunset within 15 years. In 1995, AMPS began sharing spectrum with 2G (GSM). Within 13 years the infamous Analog Sunset completely eliminated AMPS from the cellular landscape. Similarly, 2G began sharing spectrum with 3G in 2005 and, driven by the huge popularity of smart phones, is on pace to disappear in no more than five years.”

I sincerely hope this story provides both end users and alarm dealers with the information they require to make informed decisions regarding the upcoming 2G Sunset.