“Running into challenges”

In race for 5G, alarm and security services get stuck in the middle

Melissa Brinkman’s troubles are threatening to slow down AT&T’S multibillion-dollar rollout of ultrafast 5G wireless technology.

Brinkman is CEO of Custom Alarm, a company that installs and monitors home and commercial security systems, fire detectors and personal emergency alert devices in and around Rochester, Minn.

Those alarm devices were mostly designed to communicate using slower 3G wireless technology. In early 2019, AT&T announced it would phase out 3G wireless service in February 2022, meaning that the devices would no longer have a connection after that date. Brinkman’s technicians were replacing the older gear, one location at a time, when the pandemic lockdown began in March 2020.

By early this year, COVID-19 concerns had eased, and people were more willing to let her workers into their homes. But then chip shortages hit the alarm industry, so replacement equipment became harder to come by.

“Now we’ve got this delta variant,” Brinkman said. “We’re running into challenges yet again.”

The Minnesota company’s challenges are shared by many businesses whose products and services depend on wireless technology, from emergency alert pendants and home medical devices to crash prevention systems in cars and ankle bracelets that monitor felons.

COVID-19 and chip shortages have meant hassles and higher costs for these businesses. But the more critical concern is that if they cannot make equipment upgrades before the 3G sunset, some life safety and emergency alert services will stop working.

Past phase-outs of wireless technology, most recently 2G in 2017, went smoothly. But what is different this time, in addition to the pandemic disruptions, is the steadily increasing use of wireless devices of all kinds.

“The more wireless technology is embedded in our lives, the more complicated these transitions become,” said Harold Feld, a senior vice president of Public Knowledge, a consumer group. The group has shared its concerns about the deadline with the Federal Communications Commission, joining a filing made by advocacy organizations for rural communities and equal access to telecommunications services.

The alarm industry’s trade group filed a petition in May asking the agency to step in and order AT&T to push back its 3G sunset date by 10 months, to the end

Dave Vermilya, a project manager at Custom Alarm, updates a system in a home in Rochester, Minn., on Sept. 13. Businesses whose products and services depend on older wireless technology are racing to meet a pending February 2022 sunset of 3G wireless service.

Photos by Jenn Ackerman, © The New York Times Co. Custom Alarm CEO Melissa Brinkman’s technicians were replacing older gear when the pandemic lockdown began in March 2020.