Tried a cellular dialer on a commercial install and it saved my bacon

Last month I was wiring up a 5-unit strip mall in Phoenix and the phone line was dead. Landlord swore it was active but I got nothing but static. I swapped in a Honeywell 7847i cellular communicator instead of running new copper. That dialer got the signal out in under 3 minutes for the test call. Has anyone else ditched POTS lines entirely for cell backups on commercial jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker_davis411mo ago

Man I feel that pain! I once spent 4 hours chasing a POTS line issue only to find out the telco had accidentally disconnected the whole building's block. Swapped in a cellular dialer and felt like a genius for about 5 minutes until I realized I left my crimper on the roof. Those Honeywell units are solid though, they've saved me more than once when the copper gods decided to spite me.

davis.linda1mo ago

Parker is right about those Honeywell units. It seems like everything nowadays is headed toward wireless whether we like it or not. I noticed at my own house that even my smoke detectors and doorbell are going cellular now, no wires at all. Same thing with my car, it pings the dealer every time I start it up. We are trading copper for convenience and I guess reliability too, but I do wonder what happens when the cell towers get overloaded during a big emergency.