Change in broadband / landline providers affecting an older alarm system?

[ssp212]

We inherited an Honeywell Galaxy 2 Series alarm system (originally installed by Barlows) when we moved into our roughly 10 year old house and although there is no ongoing contract with the installer, the system does display an alert if there is ever an interruption to the landline.

We are currently with EE for broadband / landline (no phone plugged in, not generally used) and have been told the only way for them to reduce our bill is for their engineer to visit and move us to a broadband / VoIP account, i.e. no traditional landline. This will presumably upset the alarm system. I'm aware that many providers are going this way, but wondered if anyone had similar issues and what the cheapest and most straightforward solution might be!

The system does appear to be capable of dialling out as it was able to send us text alerts once we gave it a mobile number, e.g. low battery on a sensor. This was expensive and unreliable so we removed it (multiple “attempts” to send messages seemed to appear on our bill without always receiving anything). I’m not sure how it would react to being cut off altogether! I suppose it may be a one off alert that we can dismiss. Can anyone advise? There is a box accessible in the loft and it has been suggested we could open this and pull out the phone cable to test, but I don't want to be left in a situation I can't resolve without an engineer visiting.

I found an installation manual online, but from memory I think the engineer codes have been changed from the default (would need to double check).

 

[DIYSOS2018]

Let them move you a VOIP line but tell them you have someone in the house with a serious health need and need access to an old style landline for redundancies and they’ll leave you connected.

 

[GalaxyGuy]

There are some options to switch to IP by adding low cost IP module to your panel. I'll PM you details.

 

[sparkymarka]

Let them move you a VOIP line but tell them you have someone in the house with a serious health need and need access to an old style landline for redundancies and they’ll leave you connected.

And won’t that be at a cost ? cheaper in the long run doing what galaxy guy has suggested plus your getting notifications, the text message server has gone now anyway

 

[DIYSOS2018]

And won’t that be at a cost ? cheaper in the long run doing what galaxy guy has suggested plus your getting notifications, the text message server has gone now anyway

No cost a couple of years back but yeah if they can future proof they would be as well too

 

[ssp212]

Thanks for the responses. I probably should have mentioned that we are planning to have a loft conversion in the next few years and much of the existing hardware / wiring would have to be moved or removed. At that point we are likely to ditch the system altogether and / or potentially move to something more modern. In the meantime, I would ideally like to be able to stop the system worrying about the communication failure that would result from changes to the landline (the installation manual suggests this can be done). I wasn't sure what the consequences / reaction would be if we just went ahead anyway!