Alarm system and voIP woes

I'm with TalkTalk on FTTC and using them for landline service. Their postcode checker showed no option to keep your landline with future fibre (FTTP) so was resigned to switching at the end of my contract to BT or Vodaphone who do allow you to keep the landline using voIP. I decided to have an online chat with them anyway and was pleasantly surprised when told that their packages do alllow you to keep your landline over voIP. Each package has a data (no landline) or a voIP option.
So I decided to buy Future Fibre 150 voIP.
Now, I have a home alarm system - a Texecom Veritas 8 installed around 2002. There is the main alarm box and a separate speech dialler box. The speech dialler is connected by two wires to the master socket. You setup contacts, family friends etc. using the speech dialler. When the alarm sounds, the speech dialler rings these contacts. It is an add-on.
I agreed with the CSRep to buy Future Fibre 150 with voIP. The CSRep asked me "Digital Voice doesn't currently support equipment such as care alarms,personal alarms or security alarms that use the home phone connection. Can I ask if you currently have any such equipment connected to your home phone service?". I said Yes, described the speech dialler, was willing to have it disconnected, told her no other part of the alarm used the phone connection but she wrote "I can confirm that the alarm will not work on this full fibre package" and would not process my request to upgrade.

Is there some other fundamental underlying non-compatibility with the light from the Fibre strands and the electonics in an alarm system that I am missing here?
Thoughts?

Thanks.

if you were willing to disconnect then there should be no problem. I cannot understand why they refused an upgrade.

The voice dialler might have worked over a VoIP connection with a suitable ATA but not guaranteed - the dialler is just a DTMF generator with preset mesages.

In reply to a post by MHC:

if you were willing to disconnect then there should be no problem. I cannot understand why they refused an upgrade.

The voice dialler might have worked over a VoIP connection with a suitable ATA but not guaranteed - the dialler is just a DTMF generator with preset mesages.

I recall one member who got his house alarm dialler working with VOIP but as you say not guaranteed, I was more surprise that Talk Talk are now doing their own VOIP as they supply a Amazon eero 6 which doesn't come with a BT type jack on the back like the other routers supplied by the likes of BT and Sky.

Thanks for the ATA and speech dialler idea. I was thinking about asking my alarm company about that.

I was also surprised they now offer voIP. I asked the CSRep about that and she said there was the option of a data only (non voIP) or one with voIP. I also asked her for the price for a Future Fibre 65 and that package had the same option - data (non-voIP) or voIP.

With the eero TalkTalk always supply the Grandstream HT801 ATA which has RJ45 and RJ11 sockets and a short lead with RJ11 at one end and RJ45 at other end. So connection is eero > Grandstream > short lead > Phone et voila - voIP. On their cheapest package, TalkTalk supply a router instead of the eero. Router has RJ11 Digital Voice port which phone plugs into. Although their postcode Future Availability checker seems to be in a bit of a mess at the moment (or is it TalkTalk's Future Fibre rollout?) as it wasn't advising me that I could keep my landline. I live in N. Ireland and was using it to look at GB postcodes, some cities like Manchester, it told me there was no option to keep landline with FTTP.

I asked my alarm company for their advice and they replied "the alarm will work as a standard alarm without the speech dialler. Whatever you decide to choose from Talk Talk doesn’t affect us at all."

I have since posted on TalkTalk's forum to see if I can get them to change their mind and upgrade me.

Thanks.

Edited by DrStrange (Fri 19-Aug-22 17:14:48)

In reply to a post by DrStrange:

...
I have since posted on TalkTalk's forum to see if I can get them to change their mind and upgrade me.
...

That part's easy - just tell them you got mixed up and that the alarm does not connect to the phone line.

Have you also though about an alarm update?

2002 - so 20 years old although probably still working well. Move to a Texecom Premier Elite - keeping your existing sensors if you wish and then add a SmartCom which will use an IP connection to tell YOU what is happening - as well as the monitoring company if you want.

Thanks MHC.
Yes, I have been investigating what my FTTP/voIP options are for a while now. I contacted my alarm company last month who had told me that the speech dialler would not work over voIP but the main alarm would continue to work normally. They said they could install a more modern system that "would utilise Wi-Fi for all it's comms." I asked them to clarify what this meant as it sounded to me that system didn't have the same capability as my speech dialler to notify me when I was out and about (WiFI would only work in the home) and asked him to quote me for this system. They didn't get back to me.
It's been a very reliable system. I think I have only got the alarm company out twice in those 20 years, just to replace the back up battery, no other problems with it.

Edited by DrStrange (Fri 19-Aug-22 21:21:20)

They are just being safe - the dialler may work, but then again it may not. For a speech dialler the main issue is likely to be reliable signalling to tell the dialler the called party has answered and then hung up.

VoIP ATAs are designed to detect and handle DTMF tones, the more common (non-speech) alarm diallers use several proprietary protocols e.g. https://www.bsia.co.uk/zappfiles/bsia-front/pdfs/255... which may not be accurately transmitted.

The newer Texecom communicators connect to a cloud service and you interact with the system via an app rather than you being called with a pre-recorded message. Them mentioning WiFi is how the communicator connects via home network to be able to access the cloud service, a wired network connection is also possible.

However, AFAIK these communicators only work with the Premier Elite panels, not the entry-level Veritas ones. There may be newer third-party speech diallers which will work to avoid having to replace the main alarm control panel which by the sounds of it is fine.

I have a Texecom Premier Elite which I installed a bit over 6 years ago. It uses a wired connection to the Internet via a normal router. The ComIP module which does this cost more than the control panel. There are later internet options.

I get various emails if the status of the alarm system changes and I can see and alter the status of the control panel using the Texecom Wintex software.

The ComIP was their first go at IP connectivity so was an alternative to the Com300 and Com2400 modem communicators, they also did a ComGSM which supported GSM & GPRS.

All of those are discontinued. There is now the SmartCom which has ethernet/WiFi connectivity, or the SmartCom 4G which additionally has 4G data connectivity. Probably less expensive that the original ComIP.