Appreciation post: The shift from dialer panels to cellular backup

I pulled an old Ademco panel out of a house last week in Des Moines... it still had the original phone line dialer from the 90s hooked up. When I started doing installs back in 2004, every system relied on that copper line to call the central station. Now almost all my new jobs have cellular modules or even LTE backup built in... makes me think about how much more reliable things are, but I miss the simplicity of just crimping a phone jack. Has anyone else noticed how much faster service calls get now without waiting for a dial tone?

2 comments

2 Comments

grantl941mo ago

Man, you're spot on about the service calls. I used to spend half my time troubleshooting phone line issues on residential installs, now a quick LTE swap and it's done.

river1901mo ago

Oh man, that's the thing nobody really talks about though. All those old copper lines are just sitting there rotting now. We're basically creating a whole new generation of infrastructure that's gonna need replacing in 10 years. Sure, LTE is faster right now, but we're trading one maintenance headache for another once these cellular modules start dying out and the 4G bands get refarmed. Plus, now we're completely dependent on the cell towers staying online during storms or power outages. Copper lines at least worked on local loop power in emergencies.