Emergency Phones Switching to NBN

The National Broadband Network (NBN) is Australia’s new landline phone and internet network. The NBN rollout will affect the operation of lift emergency phones, fire alarm panels, back to base security systems, medical alert systems and landline phones in many Australian buildings.

Emergency telephones are an integral part of your lift’s safety system, which allows trapped passengers to call for help. The emergency telephone must be operational at all times, even in a power outage. Generally, your existing lift emergency phone will not work on the new NBN network and needs to be migrated. To ensure your emergency phone is migrated, you are required to register your services on the NBN Register.

You can migrate anytime within 18 months from when the NBN becomes available in your building. After this 18-month time frame, the existing networks will be switched off. Rollout plans and times differ depending on your area. You can check when your building will be ready for the NBN on the NBN’s website http://www.nbnco.com.au/.

It is the responsibility of the Body Corporate to have a compatible emergency lift phone system in place prior to the arrival of NBN at your building to ensure that it will operate on the new NBN system. The new system will also require an emergency power supply at your building to power the network and associated infrastructure at your end of the network.

The Migration of monitored fire alarm and lift phone services good practice guide sets out the roles and responsibilities of each party involved in the migration process, the actions required to identify and successfully migrate services, and associated migration solutions to support these migration processes. The Guide is intended as a handbook for use by the fire protection and lift industries, building owners, building managers, and bodies corporate, application service providers, telecommunications retail service providers, equipment providers, and regulators and government agencies, to assist them in carrying out their roles and responsibilities in the process.

There are also alternative systems to the NBN migrations that use wireless 3G technology and known as in the lift industry as a “wireless communication gateway” operating on a mobile network. Wireless systems may provide you with an alternate stand-alone solution to replace existing phone lines once decommissioned due to the NBN migration.

If you require further information, we suggest you contact a specialist service provider to assist with your migration to the NBN.

This article was contributed by Grant Mifsud – Partner, Archers the Strata Professionals