As telecare monitoring organisations consider their options for the 2025 PSTN switch off, many are  asking – how do we manage the change from analogue to All IP?  The vast majority of the estimated 1.7 million telecare users in the UK still remain on PSTN lines.  In common with many other countries, the UK PSTN network is set to close in 2025 as part of the final phase of the migration to All IP digital networks and, as a result, many telecare product manufacturers are now offering devices which will be compliant in the new IP environment.

To ensure that users of the Gemini monitoring platform are ready for these changes, Bold has launched a testing program with a number of manufacturers to identify those products which have developed a full implementation of alarm signalling and voice directly over the SCAIP protocol.  SCAIP is already widely used in other parts of Europe and forms the basis of the new TS50134-9 Standard for dispersed social alarms.

Telecare Products and Monitoring Centres

The first such product to be successfully tested is the TeleAlarm TA74 unit, with the first UK accredited telecare monitoring centre being Hawkeye Security Care which has now gone live with SCAIP Telecare, supporting both alarm signalling and voice.  The Bold Gemini SCAIP rollout continues with a number of other leading telecare manufacturers and European monitoring service providers.

The Opportunity for Monitoring Centres

While the new digital networks are causing disruption not just in telecare but across a number of sectors, they also offer new opportunities.  In the analogue environment, it has never been possible to converge data, audio and video.  With SCAIP and a telecare monitoring platform supporting the whole range of communications modes this is not only possible but desirable.   This capability now supports monitoring of a far wider feature set than conventional analogue telecare products.  Not only telecare but GPS-based tracking solutions, fire, intruder and panic alarms as well as CCTV and despatch operations can all be handled with a common workstation user interface.

Bold Communications Managing Director commented, “The advent of All IP as a significant opportunity for the telecare sector.  Not only providing a platform for interoperability but enabling manufacturers to break out of the constraints imposed by relying on telephone lines and hybrid communications methods, and also allows monitoring service providers to offer a more secure, reliable and wider range of services.”

For more information, or if you would like to see a real-life, end to end demonstration of the new SCAIP solution, please call 01392 264777 or Contact Us