Re: Comcast; loss of dial tone

[Jim <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

On Monday, August 27, 2012 3:56:19 PM UTC-4, (unknown) wrote:
> Am looking for a wireless device (transceiver) to sit between an Alarm Co=
ntrol Panel and a similar wireless device (transceiver) attached to the out=
put jack of a Comcast cable box. The purpose is to take the ACP digital sig=
nals that are normally transmitted over a land-line to a central station an=
d, instead, transmit them to the receiving unit attached to the telephone j=
ack at the rear of the Comcast cable box. This device would solve the follo=
wing problem: Here in the Boston MA area the trend appears that Comcast is =
taking away the land-line business of residential customers from Verizon. C=
omcast installers, rather than placing their cable box (containing the dial=
-tone output jack) in the vicinity of the old Verizon interface (punch-down=
 terminals, two-binding-post black protector =96 where the outside drop mee=
ts all the red/green wires), typically in the basement, they are taking the=
 route of least resistance by bringing their cable in through a 2nd floor w=
indow of a room where the cable box is to be located. The customer's cordle=
ss base station is then plugged into the output jack at the rear of the cab=
le box, providing dial tone to all the cordless house phones When there is =
no wall jack in the room, there is not even the opportunity to back feed di=
al tone to the common junction point in the basement where the reds and gre=
ens are all in parallel. On those occasions when there is a wall jack in th=
e same room with the cable box, we can reconfigure the connections in the b=
asement to provide line seizure. Sometimes Comcast installers will get it r=
ight, rarely, back-feeding to a wall jack, and in the basement severing the=
 4-conductor cable from the remaining group of reds/greens, and reconfiguri=
ng to provide line-seizure. When the cable box resides in a part of the hou=
se where it is impossible or cost-prohibitive to get dial tone to the alarm=
 system, and the customer does not want to pay for a cellular connection, t=
he alternative for the customer is to forego the monitoring of the alarm sy=
stem; hence a loss of revenue for us. It therefore would be nice to employ =
some type of transceiver to ship the alarm signals from the ACP to a simila=
r transceiver that would plug into the dial-tone output jack at the rear of=
 the cable box. It would have to be a duplex device, as the ACP needs to re=
ceive the kiss-off tone from the central station. It would also be importan=
t that we be able to access the ACP via telephone line from our office, for=
 remote programming. Any ideas or work-arounds? Thanks. Charlie.

Here in NY, Cablevision (according to their terms) is supposed to ask the c=
lient if they have an alarm system and are to wire  the telephone service t=
o maintain that service and have the client check to see if the alarm is co=
mmunicating with central before they leave the job. However .......... sinc=
e they use a lot of subcontractors, they have no control over what THEY do =
... or don't do. So, they will typically do what you describe .... put the =
telephone base station near the modem and have satillite phones throughout =
the rest of the house.=20

When I get these calls I will start by telling my customers to call the cab=
le company back to do the job right .... or I can come out and correct it b=
ut will have to charge. I tell them that if they get any resistance from th=
e cable company to let me know and I'll take care of it from there. Only a =
couple of times have I had to contact Cablevision to read their terms to th=
em. A few times the customer has had me do the work because they didn't wan=
t to deal with the cable company and they've successfully been reimbursed b=
y the cable company. I haven't lost any customers over this.