Uplink Network/Line costs?

If a monitoring company says they support uplink for a fee, does this imply they are supplying the network/line that uplink needs to place the call?

How does this work? Uplink is hardware. who supplies the network?

What's a fair price to add uplink coverage beyond the hardware and install?

Is the monitoring station having to do anything special because you are uplink?

Any alternative options to uplink? If the goal is to deter somebody from stopping the signal. on option of have the telephone company run the phone line higher in my roof requiring burglars to climb on my roof.. Also I hear Direct tv will be offering satalite DSL (possibly thorugh blue sky or something), but the idea of being completely line free (including going VOIP) is kinda cool.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Reply to
jobs
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I don't see any reason they should charge a fee, it's calling in on a line thats no different than any other

Reply to
Mark Leuck

Who? The dealer? The CS?

Somebody has to pay Uplink.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

It sounded like he was saying his CS was wanting a fee on top of what he pays Uplink, it didn't sound like the CS was the one

If the CS registered and administers the unit then yes I can see the added fee but if it's just the CS wanting a few to monitor incoming signals thats silly

Reply to
Mark Leuck

So say I buy the uplink hardware for $200. Where do I go I can use it? It uses Cellular GSM right? That requires a cellular network right? or will the hw alone work with no network?

Reply to
jc

go buy a cell phone, then you have to pay somebody for the service if you want to use it.. same with uplink.

Reply to
socko

You then go to an alarm dealer that has an account with Uplink.

If you are an alarm dealer you open an account with Uplink and pay them a monthly fee, in addition to your CS charges, then you charge your client a monthly fee based upon your CS cost + your Uplink cost.

Reply to
Crash Gordon

cell phone line? that's easy $15 a month for the additional line. And you still need the uplink hardware? and the uplink hardware can connect to uplink?

Reply to
jc

correct

Reply to
socko

Oh okay. The alarm dealer charges a premium because he's having to cover the uplink line. The uplink account enables uplink harwdare to communicate through them (like a network) to the CS.

Possible or worth it to try to communicate through normal cell service? If there were a way to communicate through an existing cell line (already in use on existing cell phone) that would be nice. But clearly that's not going to be legal or easy as SIM cards should restrict that.

thanks.

Reply to
jc

Too bad this group doesn't have a real FAQ. I think this post would be a good one to archive for general information. (Updated in the future as things change.)

No. Not with the disappearance of analog. Maybe some time in the future.

Nothing illegal about it. I used to use an analog unit by Stealth Labs that integrated a standard Motorola cellular mobile (car phone unit) with a propritary daughter board for cell backup. You could subscribe through Stealth Labs or use it as a family share phone on another cell provider plan. It programmed with a standard Motorola Cell Phone Handset.

If you were thinking that you could take your hand held cell phone and plug it into your alarm panel then its really is not practical, although there are some docking stations for some that might make it remotely possible. I have no experience with any of them, and I would suspect that the alarm panel would be looking for better signal quality than is typically provided by cellular voice service.

Uplink, Telguard, and many others work by translating the signals and information from the alarm panel into a form that can be transmitted over the digital control channels of the digital cellular network, and sending it their signal processing center. At that location it is converted back to standard alarm type signals and retransmitted over the telephone network to the central station. They pay airtime to the cellular providers, they paid to build their processing center, and they have to pay their employees. They pass that cost onto the alarm dealer selling their units and service along with a relatively modest profit per unit. The alarm dealer then installs the unit in your premise, activates it, and tests it. They then bill you for installation and monthly service. I don't know what other dealers charge for this, but we don't charge much more per month than the price of an extra line on a family share plan from your cell provider. (unless you have a lot of signal traffic over the cell service)

Quit looking for back doors with your security and do it right. Even if you do it yourself there are some things that are "the best way" to do it. In this case a cellular data channel or data burst unit designed to go between your phone line and your alarm panel is the "right way" to do it. I personally have had better luck with Telguard units, but Uplink is much cheaper for the hardware.

Another other options might be to place an IP reporting module between the alarm panel and the POTS line. (POTS - Plain old telephone service) It is less reliable than cellular IMO, but better than nothing. One advanatage is that it is often no additional cost if your central station is already setup for that particular IP reporting type of hardware.

For reliability under normal circumstances and my experience and knowledge indicates them in this order. There are other services that may be available and this is a general description, but for the average residential customer I believe this to be the best array of options and order of reliability.

POTS Private Radio Network Cellular IP Network Module

Digital Phone (Not reliable) VOIP (Not Reliable)

I mention the last two because some people in this group have claimed to have some success with these in some circumstances. I list digital phone seperate from VOIP as there are service provides who provide a non-VOIP type digital phone service paired with other services such as cable.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

P.S. I would like to add that most phone sales staff are uneducated about the technology used, and it takes some digging to determine if the digital phone service being offered by a provider is a seperate digital frequnecy on their network or really just VOIP sold as "digital" to avoid the stigma sometimes associated with VOIP services.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

It does have a "voice" though.

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Reply to
Frank Olson

jc wrote:

Uplink has to pay a fee to a cellular service provider to access the "A" channel on the cell network. The way it was explained to me is that there are two channels. The "A" channel is what they call the "control channel". It's what the network uses to establish whether your cellphone is "allowed" (your "min" number and other data is exchanged), and is used by your cell unit to actually "dial" the number you want to call. The "B" channel is the one that you actually talk on. Since the amount of traffic on the "A" channel isn't as intense as the "B", the cellular service offered by companies like SurGuard (Skyroute) and Uplink doesn't really interfere with normal cell phone usage. The data packets sent along this channel are in small bursts. The cellular service providers "lease" this channel to Uplink (and other "cellemetry" providers) for a fee. Uplink also has to maintain the infrastructure to re-route the data packets to your CS via land line. That's the reason you can't simply use any cell phone to send the information your alarm system generates. Surguard used to have a cellular phone communicator. It was called "Links 1000". Your dealer would normally set up the unit at the distributor and the service was billed to the customer directly as "emergency cell access". In BC, Telus provided the service for $9.95 a month plus a per-minute charge of $.35. The nice thing about the Links system, was that the dealer could actually call the control unit using the DLS software since an actual phone number was assigned to each unit.

Hope this helps.

Reply to
Frank Olson

I am pretty sure that A & B channel referrs to the two channels available for analog cellular service in any given area. A distinction that is no longer relevant to my understanding with the array of digital cellular service available today except that I think the cellular providers that own those frequencies still own them. They are just using them much more efficiently to provide more services and more bandwidth within the same frequency ranges.

Ownership of frequencies etc may vary in other countries.

But, hey. What do I know. I'm just a sun damaged desert rat from Arizona.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

We don't charge a "premium", more like a few bucks more per month on top of the normal monitoring fees. Keep in mind that the Uplink AnyNet is not a full reporting unit, we use it to send Burg & Fire (two signals, plus some trouble and test sigs) it won't send you detailed events. There are other, more expensive, units that can send all signals.

Reply to
Crash Gordon

You are correct. I forgot to mention that.

We've got about a foot of snow here. Put some skis on that ol' hawg of yours and come on up!! :-)

Reply to
Frank Olson

There is a reason I live in the desert.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

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