IPGSM solution touted for reliability, cost savings

PATTERSON, N.J.—Spotty telephone service in this area is a major reason why Luis Rodriguez, a fire alarm specialist and lead technician at High End Electric, recommended a more reliable Honeywell Power IPGSM-4G solution for a café here.

High End, an electrical contractor based here that does commercial and residential fire system installations, recently installed an addressable MS-9200UDLS system from Fire-Lite Alarms by Honeywell at the Mamajuana Café franchise. Part of the package also was an IPGSM-4G fire alarm communicator, which Rodriguez said provides a more reliable, money-saving way for monitoring the fire alarm system.

“I stand by that 100 percent,” Rodriguez told Security Systems News when asked about the reliability of the system.

He said that storms and other factors can lead to frequent interruptions of telephone service in the area. “I get a lot of service calls because the phone goes offline,” he said. “With the IPGSM, you avoid that problem.”

The IPGSM-4G communicator enables the café to utilize its existing Internet line as the primary means of reporting fire alarm data to a central station, according to Fire-Lite news release. Cellular (GSM) provides backup communication. “The use of two different communication paths boosts the reliability of fire alarm reporting,” the release said.

The IPGSM also saves the café owners money because they no longer have to pay for two phone lines, Rodriquez said. “You're going to save money on this,” he said he told the owners.

For two phone lines and monitoring, the café's costs would have equaled $105. Now, however, the restaurant is paying $45 per month to cover monitoring and digital cellular communications through Honeywell's AlarmNet network, according to the release.

“Through an arrangement with several of the nation's largest wireless carriers, AlarmNet provides digital cellular communications to a network operations center, where signals are converted into any one of multiple alarm communications formats and forwarded to the central station monitoring the account,” the release said.

Rodriguez noted AHJs in his area allow the IPGSM-4G to be used as the sole communications method for commercial fire installations. That accords with local and NFPA standards. He said that High End, owned by Narciso Jimenez and Ramon Guzman, has used the communicators in more than 300 installations.

According to Northford, Conn.-based Fire-Lite, “The IP and cellular option is gaining acceptance nationwide as more and more local authorities adopt the 2007, 2010 and 2013 versions of NFPA 72: National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code.”