Remote Monitoring and the Analog Shutdown

The analog systems that kick-started the commercial cellular industry 24 years ago began going dark in February, leaving scores of home security, fleet management, vehicle telematics and remote monitoring customers that have relied on AMPS-based wireless monitoring modules scrambling for alternate solutions. While many consumers long ago upgraded their cell phones, replacing hundreds of thousands of embedded devices isn't so easy nor is it inexpensive. Each company that provides these analog-only products and services must bear the expense and resource drain involved in manually replacing each device in the home, under the dashboard of a truck or in the sprinkler system of a corn field.

The new replacement solutions being chosen, however, could turn into the next AMPS migration problem if the companies that make them don't properly consider the lifecycle and replacement-timing issues related to new commercial network rollouts. Simply moving to a digital solution with an inexpensive upfront radio module cost may not be the best solution depending on the total lifecycle warranty for that product or service. While handsets turn over quickly and easily, some embedded machine-to-machine (M2M) products are expected to last for more than 10 years.

Digital wireless protocols have become a complicated matter as mobile operators move swiftly ahead to deploy the most advanced technology available in the market, leaving patches of coverage and a requirement for multimode devices. Moreover, the lifecycle of commercial wireless devices supporting those wireless protocols must be considered. Consumer mobile devices, such as cell phones and e-mail devices, typically have a lifecycle of 18 to 24 months.

For instance, GPRS, which offers relatively low data speeds over GSM networks, has already been in the market for five years and currently supports the cheapest digital modules. However, operators supporting the technology, such as AT&T Mobile, are accelerating their investments in higher speed technology called high-speed packet access (HSPA), putting the longevity of GPRS into some question.

But moving to the latest digital technology can also leave investments stranded. Deploying an HSPA module, for example, would be inefficient because of the lack of coverage currently available, while a more expensive GPRS/HSPA module would provide the coverage and a future-proof solution as HSPA grows and GPRS fades out. CDMA-based modules may require slightly higher upfront costs than GPRS modules, but they are guaranteed to work on future iterations of CDMA because of the forward compatibility nature of the technology. Moreover, vendors are aggressively reducing the price of CDMA modules thanks to new low-cost chipsets from Qualcomm.

Such scenarios are why monitoring customers need to look beyond the upfront cost and conduct the due diligence to determine whether a technology matches the expected lifecycle of their remote-monitoring applications. The FCC-mandated shutdown date of the AMPS network has been known since 2002, and Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobile and Alltel, the largest carriers that still operate analog networks, have made clear their intentions to shutter their networks to make way for more efficient digital technology. Yet many suppliers continued to ship analog modules until 2006 without an updated solution and without informing their customers in advance. Primarily affected are home alarm customers. One-quarter of a million systems still use analog service, and in most of these systems, the wireless link to the alarm center provides failover redundancy to a landline connection. Digital cellular alarm system modems didn't reach the market until 2006.

However, it's not just the security industry that is affected. Automobile telematics systems, energy utility monitoring meters and others are also affected. Customers must make their own determinations about the future direction of their wireless applications, asking critical questions of all their suppliers. Primarily, what is the expected lifespan of the particular module and network services they are providing? Get price quotes on paper, comparing not only direct hardware prices but the cost based on product lifecycles. Ask carriers for long-term service supply commitments as well. Customers must figure out their application lifecycle needs and work to match the right network and hardware technologies with that lifecycle. Otherwise, they could find themselves again conducting expensive truck rolls and unit replacements sooner than expected.