GSM
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Satellite
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Coverage
Although GSM covers 98% of the “population” it misses a great deal of the land mass. If you deliver from coast to coast GSM is not the answer for you. If you deliver 3 or more hours away from metro areas GSM is probably not the answer for you. In Monitoring Oz’s view GSM should only be used for suburban areas.
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Coverage
Satellite for data, not positioning has 100% land mass coverage. You just need line of sight to the sky.
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Real time data vs delayed
In order to alleviate the issue of coverage black spots it has been noted that some companies time stamp data to make it appear as real time. This is done by sending data history when unit has returned to the coverage area. In cases like east coast to west coast this could be 10 hours plus. During this time no alarms can be received and no control can be carried out. Unless you were constantly watching the unit you may not notice.
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Real time data vs delayed
When using satellite if there is a delay it is minimal due to the optimal coverage provided.
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Real time data vs predicted
Another solution some GSM providers use is alarm prediction. This means if the data suggests there was going to be an alarm in future, when there is no GSM coverage an alarm is provided from the server side. There are many alarms that cannot be predicted, many of them are shutdown alarms, or and possibly even worse you received a “predicted alarm” send out a technician at call out rates and the unit is operating perfectly.
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Real time data vs predicted
As satellite coverage is almost 100% satellite has no need to predict alarms.
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