Comms rooms and server rooms
Room temperature and humidity, UPS on battery, air conditioning failure and mains loss, sent to IT and facilities in real time.
GSM alarm dialler replacement
GSM alarm dialler replacement takes the alarms an old dialler or communicator used to send and sends them by SMS or email to the people who need them, with escalation when nobody answers and a record of every event. The alarms come from the same places as before: the volt-free outputs on plant, panels and equipment, plus room temperature, humidity and mains supply read directly. Small wireless tags read each alarm and report over 433 MHz to a ZARC Gateway on site, which sends the alerts over 4G and keeps working on its own battery when the mains fails.
01
What it reports
An alarm dialler has one job: when a contact closes, ring or text a short list of numbers. Many still in service were fitted to a phone line or an early mobile network, and both are going. UK analogue phone lines are being retired, with the switch-off due to complete by 31 January 2027, and 2G mobile networks are expected to close by 2033. A dialler that loses its line or its network fails silently, because nothing tells you it can no longer call.
The replacement reads the same inputs and does more with them. Each alarm reports the moment it changes, and again when it clears. Temperature, humidity and mains power can be read directly rather than through a separate thermostat or relay. Every tag checks in on a schedule, so a tag that stops reporting raises its own alert, and the gateway raises one if it loses mains power.
Alerts go by SMS, email or both, and through an app where required, to named people for each site. If the first person does not respond, escalation moves to the next. Every alarm, alert and restoration is kept with its time, so the record a dialler never kept is there for audits and insurers.
It carries plant, room and equipment alarms. Where an old dialler also passed on fire or intruder alarms, a spare volt-free output on the panel can be brought in as a supplementary alert. That is not a certified alarm signalling path, and it does not replace a monitored connection to an alarm receiving centre where insurance or the fire strategy requires one.
02
Applications
These are the dialler jobs we are asked to replace most often. The list is not exhaustive.
Cold rooms and freezers
High temperature alarms from refrigeration controllers, and the temperature itself, sent to the engineer and the site manager.
Generators and UPS
Running, fault, low fuel and on-battery outputs, read from the set's own terminals.
Pumping stations and sumps
Pump fail, high level and power loss from the control panel, with a record of every event.
Boiler and plant rooms
Boiler lockout, building management common alarm and plant room temperature, from buildings nobody visits overnight.
Water storage and booster sets
Low level, high level and booster fault alarms on tanks and pump sets.
Panel outputs as supplementary alerts
A spare volt-free output on a fire, suppression or intruder panel, sent to named people as an extra alert. The panel's own certified signalling stays as it is.
Unmanned and remote sites
Cabins, cabinets and outstations where the dialler was the only way anyone heard about a fault.
03
Where it can go
The tags fit where the dialler's inputs were wired, and run on their own batteries. Typical positions:
Beside the old dialler
Picking up the same volt-free outputs that were wired to its input terminals.
In the control panel
On the alarm or common-fault terminals of a pump, boiler, chiller or refrigeration controller.
On the wall of the room
Reading temperature and humidity in the comms room, store or plant room directly.
At the board
A power tag on the supply to the room or the equipment, reporting loss and restoration.
At the fire or intruder panel
On a spare volt-free output, connected by the panel maintainer or a competent person.
Below ground and behind metal
Basements, plant rooms and steel cabinets, with range confirmed by site survey.
04
In the dashboard
Every site appears on one live board, showing each alarm input, its state and its last report. Every alarm is recorded with when it started, who was alerted, when it cleared and how long it lasted. History exports for audits, insurers and maintenance contracts, and is held on a UK-hosted dashboard or on servers on your own site.
Alerts are pushed in real time when an input changes, when a reading crosses a limit, when a tag stops checking in and when a gateway loses its mains supply. They go by SMS or email, and through an app where required, to the people you name for each site, with escalation and separate routes in and out of hours.
- Every alarm input on every site, with its live state
- Alarm start, recipients alerted, clear and duration for each event
- Room temperature and humidity, with trends
- Mains power on or off for each room or circuit
- Escalation chains per site, in hours and out of hours
- Tags and gateways that have gone quiet, flagged
- Repeat alarms at one input shown as a pattern
- Alarm counts per month, per site and per input
- Full event history, exportable
05
Industries
It fits wherever a dialler was keeping watch over equipment nobody is standing next to, including:
Data centres and critical infrastructure
Server rooms, comms rooms and the cooling and power behind them.
Industrial and manufacturing
Plant alarms, process cold stores and compressor houses.
Facilities management and property operators
Plant room and cold store alarms across client sites.
Energy and utilities
Pumping stations, outstations and kiosks.
Telecoms infrastructure
Equipment cabins and cabinets on unmanned sites.
Buildings and estates
Boiler rooms and water storage across a portfolio.
06
Technical specification
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Replaces | GSM and phone-line alarm diallers and communicators for plant, room and equipment alarms |
| Inputs | Volt-free contacts, normally open or normally closed, from panels, controllers and equipment |
| Direct readings | Room temperature, humidity and mains power on or off, by separate tags |
| Phone line | None required |
| Alert channels | SMS, email or both; app where required |
| Recipients | Named people per site, with escalation and in-hours and out-of-hours routes |
| Alert speed | Changes of state typically reach the dashboard within a second on a 4G gateway |
| Restoration | A second alert when the input clears |
| Silent tags | A tag that stops checking in raises its own alert |
| Gateway backhaul | 4G as standard; Wi-Fi, Ethernet or satellite on request |
| Gateway backup | Internal lithium battery keeps the gateway reporting through a mains failure |
| Gateway power loss | Raises its own alert |
| Tag power | Internal battery, up to five years as standard; longer with additional cells |
| Radio | 433 MHz, one-way (transmit only) |
| Range | Up to 5 miles line of sight in good conditions; confirmed by site survey |
| Ingress protection | IP68 |
| Records | Every alarm, alert and clear with its time; exportable |
| Data location | UK-hosted, or on servers on your own site |
| Certified signalling | Not a certified alarm signalling path or alarm receiving centre connection |
| Charges | Monthly per tag and per gateway; no per-alert, per-user or licence charges |
| Manufacture | Made in the UK; ready form factors, adapted where the site needs it |
| Certification | UKCA marked |
07
From requirement to live alerts
Requirement
You send us the dialler's input list: what each input is wired to, who it called and in what order.
Configuration
We map each input to a tag, add direct temperature, humidity or power readings where they help, and build the alert and escalation routes.
Fitting
Tags go beside the old dialler or in the panels it served. Outputs on fire or intruder panels are connected by the panel maintainer or a competent person.
Changeover
The new alerts run alongside the dialler. We trigger every input and confirm each alert reaches every recipient, then the dialler comes out.
Ready to get started? Every deployment starts with a conversation with one of our engineers.
Talk to an engineer08
How it reports
Each tag sends over 433 MHz radio to a ZARC Gateway on site, and the gateway passes it to the dashboard over 4G, where alerts go out by SMS or email. No phone line is needed. When the mains fails, the gateway runs on its own lithium battery, so the alert about the outage still goes out. The tags only transmit; with no receiver on board, nothing can reach them or change their settings over the air.
Related tags
Alarm relay
Takes an existing local alarm or sounder output off site.
Dry contact
Reads fault and running outputs on plant and equipment.
Temperature
Reads the room or the cold store directly.
Power failure
Reports mains loss and restoration on a room or circuit.
Questions we answer most.
What replaces a GSM alarm dialler?
Wireless tags read the same alarm outputs the dialler was wired to and report to a ZARC Gateway, which sends alerts by SMS or email over 4G. No phone line is needed, and every alarm is recorded.
Why are alarm diallers being replaced now?
UK analogue phone lines are being retired, with the switch-off due to complete by 31 January 2027, and 2G mobile networks are expected to close by 2033. A dialler that loses its line or network stops calling without telling anyone.
Can alerts still go by text message?
Yes. Alerts go by SMS, email or both, and through an app where required, to the people you name, with escalation when the first person does not respond.
What happens if the power goes off?
The tags run on their own batteries and the gateway carries a lithium backup battery, so alerts keep going out. The gateway also raises an alert of its own when it loses mains power.
How will we know if the system itself stops working?
Every tag checks in on a schedule. A tag that goes quiet raises its own alert instead of being read as all clear, which an old dialler never did.
Can it pass on fire and intruder alarms?
A spare volt-free output on the panel can be sent as a supplementary alert. It is not a certified alarm signalling path and does not replace a monitored connection to an alarm receiving centre where insurance or the fire strategy requires one.
Do we need to rewire the equipment?
No. The tags connect to the outputs that were already wired to the dialler, and room temperature, humidity and power are read by their own tags.
Can we test it before the old dialler comes out?
Yes. The new alerts run alongside the dialler, every input is triggered and every recipient is checked, and only then is the dialler removed.
Do alerts or extra recipients cost more?
No. There are no per-alert, per-user or licence charges; the system is charged monthly per tag and per gateway.
Can one dashboard cover all our sites?
Yes. Every site reports to the same dashboard, grouped the way you run them, each with its own inputs and alert routes.
Looking for something else?
We work with any sensor for any application.
Most sensing needs are met by a tag we already build, configured for your equipment. If yours needs a sensor or interface we don't list, we have the engineering to build it. Tell us what you need to measure, and we will tell you how we would do it.
Discuss your requirementDiscuss a monitoring
or alerting solution
Tell us what is happening on site, what you need to see, and the event you need to hear about. We will come back with the system that answers it.
Direct contact
Location
Venator House, Unit 9, 15-17 St Stephen's Road, Bournemouth
Dorset, BH2 6LA · VAT GB 409644484
Solutions contact
Contact the engineering team
Direct to the team that designs and builds the system. Send us the list of what your old dialler was wired to.