cellular phone method for monitoring?

I don't have a landline, and would like professional monitoring.

I would prefer to use a cellular phone for the outgoing alerts, but it needs to be self sufficient (not reliant on home power) and reasonably priced.

What can you all tell me? Any suggestions? Thanks!

What panel? There are many options... the Uplink products; HAI C3 is a fake landline; there are IP monitoring solutions; ABN for broadband monitoring, etc.

I have the OPII, and I prefer a cellular method. I don't think VOIP or a Landline will work in the event of a power or phone line failure, correct?

Work2Play, thanks for the response - I just realized I should update my profile with that information now that I've got something actually installed!

Check out the HAI C3 (Cellular Communications Center)

http://www.homeauto.com/Products/C3/C3.asp

Sorry - I didn't pay attention to what forum this was in (I just look at new topics)... I'd follow the above recommendation to look at the C3 - it'll likely be the best supported option available.

For other systems I like the Uplink products because they seem like a tighter integration, but I'm not sure how well they're integrated with HAI since they produce the C3. The C3 should look/act like a phone line to your panel and be pretty transparent.

VoIP can be backed up by batteries and if connected to cable, it would still stay up as long as cable service is available and the batteries hold a charge. Wouldn't a cellular system require battery backup also? The only advantage to cellular is maybe that the wire can't be cut.

lupinglade said:

VoIP can be backed up by batteries and if connected to cable, it would still stay up as long as cable service is available and the batteries hold a charge. Wouldn't a cellular system require battery backup also? The only advantage to cellular is maybe that the wire can't be cut.

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VOIP is hit or miss, though it has improved over the years. As far as TCP/IP, I'd only really recommend it for someone that has something bordering an enterprise grade network connection and hardware.

Any pro grade cellular generally will have battery backup of some sort. As far as how they're powered, it depends on the particular manufacturer and "flavor" of communicator being installed. Something like a Telular TG-1E can be powered off the host panel many times, where the larger TG-1 through TG-7 or an Uplink 2530 or higher really needs either a transformer and battery or separate supply altogether to accomplish the backup battery requirement. Most cellulars I deal with have an inherently built in low battery supervision and signal for their own backup battery, as they're not really designed to be driven off the panel itself, and in actuality, I wouldn't recommend many installs to do such, as it significantly affects standby time.

I don't support the C3, because as a pro that doesn't need to provide a prepaid SIM and the whole shebang, in all honesty, I believe there's better solutions out there for the market I deal with, but for a DIY, I'm sure it's adequate.

If the power is out, then the cable/internet will also be out, so anything that requires those items is useless.

A battery backup is exactly that: a "backup". If the power is out, the only thing that will work is a cellular device with a battery backup.

I have a backup generator on my home, but if the power in the city is out for some reason I would assume that the internet would also be out, which would render the VOIP solution useless.

So far we have the Telular TG-1E and the HAI C3 for suitable suggestions. I'll do some research!

Uplink 2530 or higher numerical series also, DSC GS 3060 or even a Honeywell product will work.

Well technically jaydubb, by your reasoning if the city is out of power hence no working TCP/IP, then your local cell towers could be down as well.
The only guaranteed connection is hard line (and this can be cut or go down if a line breaks somewhere). And even they require power. In most cases all three of these have backup power at the receiving end (not sure on that for all cell towers though I have seen it on some)

Everything else requires power on the receiving end including TCP/IP or cellular. This is why people have redundant capabilities, hard line AND cell line access.

DELInstallations what do you use for your clients in place of a C3?

Bal said:

Well technically jaydubb, by your reasoning if the city is out of power hence no working TCP/IP, then your local cell towers could be down as well.
The only guaranteed connection is hard line (and this can be cut or go down if a line breaks somewhere). And even they require power. In most cases all three of these have backup power at the receiving end (not sure on that for all cell towers though I have seen it on some)

Everything else requires power on the receiving end including TCP/IP or cellular. This is why people have redundant capabilities, hard line AND cell line access.

DELInstallations what do you use for your clients in place of a C3?

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I have no way to back this up with data, but I would argue that nothing beats cellular when it comes to reliability. When the news dicusses various natural disasters around the world, it is always cellular communication that survives. Cell towers are each independently operating stations that have generator backup that lasts hours or even days. They do not rely on a physical connection and they have multiple radio paths to the main grid.

True, cellular has dead spots and if you are moving in a car you can have fluctuates. But in a stationary location with a high wattage radio, it just doesn't go down.

I have a C3. It works perfectly. It has a built-in battery backup. It pretends to be a landline so you can plug your alarm panel or your home phone network into it and everything works like normal. Setting up central station is also completely the same as with a landline.

You do have to get a gsm card. I use ATT prepaid. You can buy 12 months for $100 and if the only thing that uses it is your alarm, you will not even come anywhere close to running out of minutes. I can certainly understand why a pro installer would rather not use the C3 since presumably he would then be responsible for replenshing the minutes and passing the cost on to the customer, a headache he probably doesn't want. But for the diy guy, it really doesn't matter.

Hmmm.... interesting points for sure.

I guess my main rebuttal is simply that I can recall many times when the city power was down, but I was still able to make calls on my cell phone.

Lou, did you actually have to buy a phone to get that GSM card or can you get it as a stand-alone?

Also, where would one buy this magical C3 device?

jaydubb1 said:

Hmmm.... interesting points for sure.

I guess my main rebuttal is simply that I can recall many times when the city power was down, but I was still able to make calls on my cell phone.

Lou, did you actually have to buy a phone to get that GSM card or can you get it as a stand-alone?

Also, where would one buy this magical C3 device?

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I want to an ATT store and they gave it to me. I don't know that they will for sure do that for you. At the time I had ATT for my regular cell phone so maybe they only give it away for that, or maybe if you ask nice they always give it away. People also sell them on ebay for a couple bucks.

The HAI C3 unit is for sale at lots of online home security stores. Usually costs around $250.

Thanks Lou, I'll follow that lead. Cheers!

Bal said:

Well technically jaydubb, by your reasoning if the city is out of power hence no working TCP/IP, then your local cell towers could be down as well.
The only guaranteed connection is hard line (and this can be cut or go down if a line breaks somewhere). And even they require power. In most cases all three of these have backup power at the receiving end (not sure on that for all cell towers though I have seen it on some)

Everything else requires power on the receiving end including TCP/IP or cellular. This is why people have redundant capabilities, hard line AND cell line access.

DELInstallations what do you use for your clients in place of a C3?

Click to expand...

I use Telular, Uplink and also Connect 24. We've formerly used Alarmnet.

Cellular sites typically have some form of backup battery bank/generator, so the point regarding power failures is typically moot. The only item that does happen, unfortunately more often than most realize, is sites go down for maintenance/upgrades, which happens usually overnight. If you can hit multiple towers within your cell, typically not an issue, but if you're marginal to begin with....