Call your representatives! Support Industry Call for 3G Sunset Extension

/0 Comments/in , /by

As many of you know, AT&T and Verizon have announced sunsets for their 3G networks. AT&T is calling for a sunset date of February 22, 2022 and Verizon is calling for a sunset of December of 2022 – 10 months later. Because of the Coronavirus many of our customers have been reluctant to have alarm technicians enter their homes and businesses so that we can upgrade their equipment to make them compatible with newer networks.

We need your help especially if your business is headquartered in one of the following states:

AK, AZ, CA, CT, CO, FL, HI, IA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV

The industry is seeking a longer transition period before AT&T sunsets its 3G network. We are asking elected officials to reach out to AT&T and urge them to push back their sunset to December 2022 which would make AT&T’s sunset the same time as Verizon’s proposed sunset, citing the pandemic as the reason.

Linked here is a spreadsheet that includes the staffers of all the members on the House and Senate Telecom Subcommittees. House Members appear first, scroll down to the second page to find Senators. Please use the staffer’s email to contact the Telecom Sub-committee member.

Ideally, if your business is headquartered in a Sub-Committee member’s district or state, we would urge you to reach out to that member. Even if your business is not located in the member’s district but are from his/her state, they will pay attention.

To find out who represents your district go to:

Please let me know if you have any questions. Our lobbyist Bill Signer or I will endeavor to assist you. Thank you in advance for your help in helping our industry.

We are asking you to send the message below to your elected officials:

Dear Representative/Senator:

The burglar and fire alarm industry is seeking your help in urging AT&T to delay the shutdown of its 3G cellular network which is currently scheduled for February 22, 2022 – a mere 16 months from now – to December 2022. This would then have both Verizon and AT&T shutting down their 3G network cellular networks at the same time.

Our industry protects the safety, and property of over 30 million homes and businesses. Additionally, many seniors depend upon us to monitor their personal emergency response systems allowing them to live at home. Many of these systems were installed using the 3G cellular network and must be upgraded, otherwise they will cease to communicate once the 3G networks are shutdown. Historically, AT&T recognized the need for an appropriate time period when it moved from 2G to 3G and provided 4 1/2 years for that transition. The industry estimates that we now have upwards of 3 times the number of 3G devices to change out as we did in the past transition.

Currently, the change-out requires an alarm technician to enter the premise and upgrade the existing equipment. Unfortunately, with the Coronavirus pandemic understandably many of our customers have been reluctant to have us enter their homes and businesses. For six months and counting this has curtailed what was to be a two year transition. Realistically, we are looking at least another nine months before we will be able to resume our normal ability to upgrade these systems.

While AT&T has been working with the industry for the development of equipment that will allow consumers to self-install equipment that would upgrade home security systems, to date that equipment is still in the testing stage. While we are hopeful that the equipment will work, we are not certain it will or whether the manufacturer will be able to meet the demand in a timely fashion.

Accordingly, we are asking you to speak directly with AT&T and urge them to move back their 3G cellular shutdown date to December 2022 and make it the same time as Verizon’s shutdown. Failure to do so will put millions of homes, businesses, and lives needlessly at risk.

Include your address on the emails that you send so they know you are a constituent.

 

 

TMA 2020 Achievement Highlights

/0 Comments/in , /by

With your support and participation, TMA has advanced the following initiatives so far this year: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, TMA initiated many efforts to assist and protect our members: When members contacted TMA about the potential impact of stay-at-home orders and social distancing on their UL-listings if their operators […]

Read more

Attend TMA’s General Membership Meeting, Oct. 21

/0 Comments/in , /by
TMA will host its General Membership Meeting on October 21st at 2:00PM [EST]. Set aside some time to hear the latest information on some of the great projects and initiatives that TMA volunteers and staff have been focused on in the past few months.
Like so many of your companies, our priorities shifted with the onset of the pandemic earlier this year, and we have initiated some projects that we hadn’t planned for prior to these challenging and unprecedented times. Our focus has transitioned to the development of resources, standards, and education that supports your company’s needs amid COVID-19.
Please mark your calendar to join TMA President Don Young, members of the Board of Directors, volunteer leaders, and TMA staff for this important meeting. 
We look forward to getting your feedback on our projects and to answering any questions you may have! 
REGISTRATION INFORMATION:
TMA General Membership Meeting
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 | 2:00PM [EST]
Please register at:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4616370347323265808
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Brought to you by GoToWebinar®
Webinars Made Easy®

Experiencing blocked or mislabeled calls?

/0 Comments/in /by

TMA wants to hear from you! In response to the FCC request for examples, TMA seeks to learn how members’ communications with customers are being impacted by call blocking programs initiated by carriers to stop robocalls.  Please email cbesore@tms.us with your comments by Sept. 24th.

Please provide the following information for any instances:

  1. Whether the calls were blocked or mislabeled as fraud?
  2. What carrier did the blocking/mislabeling?
  3. When did the blocking/mislabeling occur?
  4. Were the blocked/mislabeled calls from the central station to the customer to verify the alarm signal or to the PSAP or other public safety entity to report the alarm?
  5. Did the central station contact or try to contact the carrier about the blocking/mislabeling?
  6. What was the response from the carrier?

Below, find the appropriate contacts for the different telecom providers to whom you should also report your experiences.

AT&T:

Contact AT&T by phone at  800-337-5373 (prompt 1) or via email at

dl-GFMOBusinessFra@att.com

Contact AT&T’s third party analytics company, Hiya, at https://hiyahelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

 

T-Mobile:

Register in with T-Mobile at https://www.calltransparency.com.  According to T-Mobile, the Call Transparency list “allows legitimate businesses and other legitimate callers a place to provide their phone numbers and information about the traffic on those numbers.”

Report when a call has been incorrectly blocked or labeled at https://feedback.fosrvt.com/.

 

Verizon:

Register  with Verizon’s third party vendor, Transaction Network Services (TNS), at https://voicespamfeedback.com.

According to Verizon, it offers two robocall mitigation services:  (1) Call Filter for Verizon wireless customers and (2) Spam Alert for Verizon wireline residential customers.   Both services label calls based on analytics from TNS.   Customers and calling parties can report if telephone numbers are inadvertently being flagged as potential spam or fraud at the feedback website.

 

October Virtual Town Hall Addresses Public Safety Issues

/0 Comments/in /by

Gain insights into the most critical issues facing public safety leaders today

Hear directly from top law enforcement and fire leaders

Monday, September 14, 2020 | 11:00 AM

Please join the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Chief Steven R. Casstevens; the president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) Chief Richard Carrizzo; and the president of the National Sheriffs Association (NSA) Sheriff David Mahoney, as they share their top issues and how we can better support their critical work.

Don’t miss this important conversation.

*Member-exclusive event.

AICC Seeks Comment – Recent Equipment Prohibitions

/0 Comments/in , /by

AICC is evaluating the possibility of filing comments regarding the impact of recent prohibitions on use of equipment (including video surveillance) from ZTE and Huawei (and their affiliates) on its members. Comments are due September 14. Any information you can about your company in response to the following questions would be greatly appreciated:

  1. Does your company provide services or equipment to any Federal government agency, or to any entity pursuant to the Federal Acquisition Rules (FAR), either as a primary contractor or subcontractor?
  2. Does your company use equipment manufactured by or services provided by ZTE, Huawei, Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company, or Dahua Technology Company? This question is not limited to equipment or services you offer; it includes any usage of equipment or services from these companies whatsoever.
  3. If you do not know the answer to question 2 above, please provide a sense of how difficult it might be to determine the answer.

As noted, the next opportunity to provide feedback on the subject to regulators is September 14. Accordingly, we ask that you please forward your responses to Sal Taillefer (sta@bloostonlaw.com) as soon as possible.