Old school phone line takeover vs. IP monitoring, give me the copper any day

Been doing this since 2009 in Cleveland. Back then every install was a standard POTS line takeover. Simple, reliable, and if the power went out the phone line still worked. Now everything is IP and cellular and I gotta troubleshoot router settings at 9pm because the homeowner's kid is gaming and the alarm keeps dropping offline. Switched fully to IP about 4 years ago because customers wanted the app alerts. I get it, but I've had more false trouble signals from network hiccups in one month than I had in 10 years of copper. Anyone else still miss the old pots setups or am I just stuck in my ways?

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1 Comment

averywright1mo ago

Copper has one thing IP never will: a straight path between the panel and the central station. No homeowner's wifi, no ISP modem, no kid's Xbox in between. When it worked, it was because nothing else could touch it.