Ats Levels And Failure Reporting Times

[IPAlarms]

GPRS isnt reliable IMHO.

People have the perception that it is unreliable because it is supervised and you get to know when the network is down. With GSM Voice or SMS, the network could be down for hours or even days and nobody would be any the wiser. It's the same reason we all thought landlines were 100% reliable.... and that's in the days when landlines were actually landlines "all the way". Not like today, were many "landlines" often touch VoIP networks along the way.

[Guest Oxo]

Sorry, your wrong on one point at least.

Voice dialing is instant, not based on GPRS or SMS.

A dialler is probably more effective than GPRS and SMS as it connets directly with the recipient, not routed god knows where.

Never had a call dropped yet dialling any number on land line.

[IPAlarms]

Not sure what you mean by each GPRS connection being equal...can you expand a little on this? Do you mean, say CSL's GPRS service should be, (but is not) the same as ours (WebWayOne)?

On one system, a device may be in an ideal location for a particular network provider and be able to maintain a solid connection. On a second system, the device may be in a notoriously bad area and suffer regular outages. The two systems should not be forced to use the same client or server side polling/checking intervals.

Most ATS providers of IP/GPRS or GPRS/PSTN services will provide you with the SIM card as part of the contract. It makes sense as this is sold via the ARC and helps with billing and admin for everyone.

...not to mention that manufacturers have ARC's and installers by the balls and can charge outrageous amounts for increased polling rates.

[IPAlarms]

Sorry, your wrong on one point at least.

Stick around, I'm just getting started

Voice dialing is instant, not based on GPRS or SMS.

...provided the network is there. If the GSM network was down from midnight to 6am, you would be none the wiser if the panel did not attempt to send a signal during that time.

Never had a call dropped yet dialling any number on land line.

Again, that doesn't mean that the line is available 100% of the time for every system that you have installed out there. If you have a digi that is only armed/disarmed once a week, then unless it is sending daily tests, the line could be down for days before anyone would find out.

[Guest Oxo]

Whole point of a test signal.

Costs a bit more, but makes sure its working.

After a conversation with James and seeing the timers required voice dialling is better than some ATS equipment.

[james.wilson]

Some yes but g4 stuff isnt.

I'll upload a table with it all on. Unless someone beats me to it as it's pool night.

50136 table 6 I think.

Jim will have it or adrian

[Guest Oxo]

Try and win this time.

And we both agree the standard reporting is dire.

[james.wilson]

I'd agree that anything less than g4 is weak under some circumstances

Well mainly catastrophic failure as you know.

But too many installers fit g2 and g3 dualpath with blind faith in marketing

All imho and from posts on here showing huge concerns with d big boy

[jimcarter]

..thought I had Table 6 on my PC...but no...I'm out most of tomorrow but will try and get it uploaded by close business, unless someone else gets there first.

[jimcarter]

On one system, a device may be in an ideal location for a particular network provider and be able to maintain a solid connection. On a second system, the device may be in a notoriously bad area and suffer regular outages. The two systems should not be forced to use the same client or server side polling/checking intervals.

...not to mention that manufacturers have ARC's and installers by the balls and can charge outrageous amounts for increased polling rates.

Point 1 - true, but some ATS providers are able to offer more than a single radio provider as part of their service. This may be a chargeable upgrade, maybe not.

Point 2 - we (for example)have very good commercial relationships with our ARC partners, so I don't necessarily agree with your point I'm afraid. The radio path (from all providers) is "costed" to cover the bandwidth used and is a fixed fee. Any over-runs are covered (usually) by the provider, their risk. Economies of scale mean that the ATS providers can provide data over GPRS at a more competitive price to the ARC than any installer on his own can.

The ARCs provide a monitoring service...so even if you allow installers to manage their SIMS, they still have to buy the monitoring from somewhere. Once you factor in the SIM cost, this will be a more expensive service.

I don't believe the average installer will want to get involved with individual SIM billing or managing any data over-runs because a client has disconnected the land line and run on radio for an extended period. Also there are contractual issues if one network is not covered in a specific area as you mention in your example. He will have to cancel one contract (cost involved here) and open up another, more cost. You cannot even begin to consider Pay As You Go.

In addition (as the manufacturer) one needs to be very, very clear with regards to data useage on the SIM if you are going to let the installer manage his own polling. If he has not got the right contract SIM (i.e annual bandwidth useage) and he sets the polling at a high rate that eats into his quota, or worse, over-runs....who is picking up the tab? Someone will get a bill..and be very unhappy, or be loosing money.

There may be a case for the above type of monitoring, but it will be outside of the Standards and Insurance requirements.