Hello.

I have a small building with an Elevator and the billing is being charged the same thing as a full phone service.

I was wondering if there a special phone service for these emergency phones that will probably never be used except for an emergency.

Seems like kind of a waste to be playing like $60 a month for something never used> Perhaps there is another option like some kind of VOIP solution?

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Not that I know of. Maybe it's never used but when it's needed it HAS to work. Matter of fact many jurisdictions want it to be copper so the reliability is there in case of a power failure- same as the primary fire system line. That rules out cable modems and VOIP.

-Hal

Where are you located? Who supplies the service for the elevator? The AHJ and the telecom supplier are the people who can give you the best answers...

Sam

You may want to call a telecom professional in your area. Viking Electronics makes a device that will allow you to share an existing line. If there is an emergency in the elevator, the device disconnects everything except the elevator phone and the outside line that is being shared.

Rcaman

1. Park City, UT
2. Centurylink

A single unused phone line is $68 after all the fees and taxes. $816 a year for a phone line that has not even made a single phone call in the last year.

It should be cheaper for me to buy a smart phone, add a line to my cell phone account and attach it with a steel cable in the elevator in case anyone needed to make an emergency call.

I have been in 2 houses with residential elevators and both of them had no phone. I wonder if there is any legal requirement in utah for the phone in the first place. If the power goes out, chances are the phone won't even work. Especially if they are tied into a PBX system in the office without a UPS.

I assume there is no requirement for a elevator phone in a private residence. A commercial environment is totally different.

(...If the power goes out, chances are the phone won't even work. Especially if they are tied into a PBX system in the office without a UPS....)

Which is exactly they should NOT go through a PBX.

A line sharing device is the best idea, Maybe you could share it with your alarm line.

Cost of doing business. If that phone is needed and ended up not working the lawsuit would be incredible.

Phone serves as a lifeline, I don't know why the government charges taxes on phone service as if its cigarettes or liquor.

Several buildings cost nearly $2,500 a year in elevator phone lines alone with maybe 0 phone calls in that year.

That money could be used to help starving children or something.

There really has to be another way(or if not, someone should make one)

Sounds like a good idea if a phone line is there already. I know that in one of the building, there is internet provided for the tenants however I am going to have to check on the phone/alarm in the building(if there is one at all). Its kind of an area where everyone leaves theirs doors unlocked.

Regardless of what was said here, the correct answer is going to come from the department that inspects the elevator for the municipality. Only they will tell you what you can or cannot do.

-Hal

Who is billing for the service?

I recently dealt with this when we cutover a customer to a new PBX. The phone in the elevator is simply an autodialer, and is an analog extension on the phone system, which is apparently allowable in the city of St. Louis (I did not make the decision to route calls this way, I recommended a dedicated POTS line). In this case, Otis monitors the phone. So I could imagine that the bill is not necessary for phone service, but for the elevator manufacturer to be on the other end to answer if there is an emergency.

Glad you brought that up, that's something that hasn't been addressed by the OP either. Who answers the calls? Most cases they cannot go to 911 or the police. They usually must go to a monitoring service and that's not free. Perhaps that's part of the cost?

-Hal

I can only speak about westrern PA. Shared POTS line is acceptable as long as it can disconnect an existing call and initiate a new call. In other words, the sharing device gives prime control to the elevator.

We have some unique situations here. The city and county housing authorties have emergency dispatch centers and they insist on receiving emergency calls from elevators located in their facilities. In all schools and hospitals, the calls must be routed to a monitoring service which may or may not be on any "approved" list. When the inspector tests the phone and it works, the inspector doesn't care who it called as long as there is a response.

Then there are the Otis and Marshall elevator installations which are nothing more than autodialers which MUST have a dedicated POTS line and MUST alert Otis or Marshall in case of an emergency. This has come under criticism, recently, as several inspectors have reached dead air or the call was routed correctly, but the person on the receiving end had no authorization to dispatch fire or rescue personnell. So, what good is that? In one instance, we were given authority to remove the Otis speakerphone, replace it with another that dialed a monitoring company and stayed live until a rescue person, with a special key, terminated the call. This was in a high rise nursing home whuch just had new elevators installed. The inspector gave the nursing home 24 hours to fix the problem or the facility was going to be shut down. Yes, they have the authority to do that here. The inspectors are under the Department of Labor and Industry and they can shut down ANY facility they deem unsafe. They are THE AHJ above any other in these cases.

So, it has to be locally determined what is approved and who can monitor the calls. The OP is looking for a cheap solution which may not be appropriate here. After all, it is Life Safety in question here. Is there a reasonable price for that?

Rcaman

Not necessarily advocating this, but since it's allowed here locally....we got around the Otis autodialer wanting a dedicated POTS line by manipulating the dial plan on the PBX to allow straight 10 digit dialing, without 9, from the elevator extension. Didn't even have to touch the elevator intercom programming.