May 3rd, 2011 6:10pm
Over the past few hours, several thousand Provident clients have been affected by a Shaw Digital Phone network problem. This has resulted in affected client’s alarm systems being unable to communicate with Provident over the Shaw Digital Telephone line. As a result, most affected system keypads are now displaying a Trouble light (an amber light on the front of the keypad) or ‘FC’ which stands for ‘Failure to Communicate’.
If either of those conditions exist, your alarm will not communicate over the telephone. It will, however, operate locally (ie. you can still arm and disarm, the siren will still sound, but no alarm signals will be sent).
We have been in contact with Shaw and they have confirmed that the issue is the result of modifications that they made to their network earlier today. They have said that they understand the impact that this outage is having and they have indicated that they have made it a “high priority” to solve. So far, they have not been able to give us a timeframe as to when this will be solved other than to say they “hope” that it will be fixed within 24 hours. We are doing our best to stay on top of them and push for the fastest possible resolution to this issue.
For some of our clients, their Shaw Digital Phones were not working at all at times today. However, even for clients who can now use their Shaw Digital Phone to make telephone calls, the Shaw network is still not communicating with our Kerrisdale monitoring station.
To be clear, this is 100% a Shaw Digital Phone network issue. The lines on our end that receive alarm signals are Telus lines and they are working properly, as are all of our back-up systems.
How does this affect you?
If you are not a Shaw Digital Phone client: There is no issue.
If you have BLINK or Cellular Back-Up Monitoring in place: We will still be receiving alarm signals over those systems. You may still have the amber light or ‘FC’ on your keypad, but we will still receive alarm signals wirelessly.
If you do not have BLINK and are a Shaw Digital Phone client: Until Shaw resolves the issue, your alarm WILL NOT be able to communicate any alarm signals over the telephone line.
We are doing everything we can to expedite Shaw’s resolution to this issue.
Once it is resolved, you can confirm that your system is communicating with us by arming and disarming your alarm. If it is able to send either of those signals successfully, the amber light or ‘FC’ on your keypad will disappear and your alarm will be back online with us.