The countdown is speeding up for condominiums. From March 31, the telecommunications operator Orange will end its 2G mobile networks, in favor of 4G and 5G. SFR and Bouygues will follow suit by the end of 2026. However, of the approximately 650,000 elevators in France, around 230,000, or more than a third, are equipped with remote alarms working with 2Gaccording to the Elevator Federation. A proportion which rises to 50% when including remote alarms operating with 3G, which telecommunications operators will cut between the end of 2028 and the end of 2029.
These deadlines pushed the Co-ownership Show to “sound the alarm on the end of 2G and 3G networks»during a workshop organized this Wednesday, November 5. “We have been raising awareness among our co-ownership customers of the need to replace the 2G elevator kits for over a year, but they are seriously behind schedule”worries Jean-David Ceder, commercial director of services for the elevator manufacturer Schindler.
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Very long decision-making processes in co-ownership
However, if these kits are not replaced when 2G turns off, the elevators will be put on hold. For the simple reason that every elevator must be equipped with a working remote alarm. The remote alarm is the yellow button with a bell that you can activate to be put in touch with an intervention service if the cabin becomes blocked. Office buildings are also affected but to a lesser extent because 60% of the French elevator fleet is located in residential premises, whether social housing or private housing.
It is this last category which concerns the Elevator Federation because the social landlordsthey, accustomed to managing heavy interventions, “know how to do”underlined his boss, Alain Meslier, on RMC, last August. In condominiums, on the other hand, “decision-making processes are always very long»he insisted, urging the co-owners to “decide quickly” to migrate elevator remote alarms to 4G or 5G.
A cost of a few hundred euros to migrate to 4G or 5G
Such a migration actually requires half a day of intervention for an elevator. A delay to be multiplied by the 250,000 cabins whose remote alarms still operate in 2G! “Elevator operators should not be at a given moment saturated with requests to upgrade remote alarmswhich they could not satisfy »with the risk of elevators being stopped while they are equipped with 4G or 5G, adds Jean-David Ceder.
Such a situation would be all the more regrettable as the cost of migrating remote alarms does not exceed “a few hundred euros»indicated Alain Meslier in August. In fact, the solution proposed by Schindler costs “700 to 800 euros to purchase per elevator, a sum to which must be added around thirty euros per month for the service contract”illustrates Jean-David Ceder. A relatively painless expense once distributed between all the co-owners and spread over several fundraising appeals.
