“Martin said some of them rely on a regular telephone line to call police, but plenty of other units use wireless cell phone service, specifically analog cell phone service, which will begin disappearing Feb. 1, 2008.
“They may not, possibly, get a proper dispatch to the authorities in an emergency situation if they were unaware of it,” said Martin of Martin Electrical.
“Some of the larger security companies that are dealing with this could have as many as 4,000 customers that they have to go in and replace equipment for,” said Martin.
One local security company sent a letter to its customers telling them they need to purchase a new digital transmitter at a cost of nearly $250.
But why is there a need for a conversion?”