Re: New 10 digit dialing problems

["R.H.Campbell" <rh.campbell@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quite right Mike ! I knew this was in the plans some 15 years ago when I
worked for Bell, so I have always programmed 10 digits into the dialer. My
comments were more in regard to the thousands of panels out there that have
been taken over by the Borg through aquisitions. At the time when they
bought the old VSN accounts these all had 7 digit numbers (they even had to
make special arrangements to refer the numbers to their station at the
time). I suspect that "Big Blue" will have a major problem with this unless
they have some sort of contingency plan in place; otherwise, they will have
many thousands of customers with no functional alarm panels, and who will
never know it, since they won't show failures to communicate. And you can't
communicate with V3 DSC 1550 panels without the special version of software
that they may or may not have.Takeovers though? That is steady and goes
without saying...

I was looking for real life experiences in areas where this has happened in
the past. I have seen local interviews with one of the larger independant
companies in the area where they were complaining of the huge volume of work
they need to do as a result of the change (roughly 5000 accounts)

Not often I feel sorry for the Borg....

RHC

"mikey" <loismustdie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:445b289a$1$29239$88260bb3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> There is at least one opportunistic company here charging 95- simply to
> download
> the changes. Mine have be dialling 10 digits for 10 years, there's no
> excuse
> for not being ready for this, it's not like we didn't know it was coming.
>
> "Nomen Nescio" <nobody@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:8f519cbe04a552448c741c24efab1e61@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>> R. H. Campbell said:
>>
>> >Effective 17 June 2006, residents of the two area codes 613 and 819 in
>> >Eastern Canada will be required to dial the area code before the number
> in
>> >order to make any kind of local call. This has a major bearing on how
> alarm
>> >panels work, since they too have to dial a 10 digit receiver number, and
> I'm
>> >sure most alarm companies are rushing to reprogram their customers
> panels.
>> >However, I have to wonder what is going to happen to all those many
>> >thousands of older panels which have been acquired through aquisitions
>> >by
>> >the larger companies, and which are not capable of being dialed into to
> make
>> >the necessary changes to the receiver number. It doesn't seem practical
> (or
>> >even logistically possible) to make a visit to each panel to program the
>> >changes, especially for the largest companies with multi thousands of
> these
>> >panels in service.
>>
>> Practical or not, it has to be done.  An alarm company would be
> exceedingly
>> negligent if it failed to reprogram its systems (or install another type
> of
>> transmitter), knowing full well that those systems could not possibly
>> communicate with the central station.  Especially if they keep cashing
>> the
>> checks after the changeover date.
>>
>> Using 800 numbers prevents all kinds of problems, especially when area
>> codes get split.
>>
>> However, nobody said the alarm companies have to do the changes for free.
>> It isn't the alarm company's fault that the phone company is changing a
>> policy that's been in effect for over 50 years.
>>
>> I don't know what governmental oversight there is in Canada.  You may be
>> able to get more time, either from the phone company or from the
> regulatory
>> agency.  It's not just alarm systems, there are a ton of credit card
>> machines and other equipment that may need to be reprogrammed.
>> Hopefully,
>> CANASA was on top of this from the beginning.
>>
>> - badenov
>>
>
>
>
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