Supervised cellular reporting network

A communications network which utilizes cellular telecommunications network technology for reporting information from a premises to a central monitoring facility, comprising:

• an input device associated with said premises for providing one or more messages;
• a cellular transceiver module operable with said input device for receiving said one or more messages from said input device and transmitting said one or more messages on a preselected reverse control channel;
• a message processor placed at a predetermined site for receiving and decoding said one or more messages transmitted from said cellular transceiver module, and transmitting said one or more messages to said central monitoring facility;
• and
• wherein said preselected reverse control channel has a corresponding forward control channel, and wherein said corresponding forward control channel is adjacent in frequency to one or more adjacent forward control channels, said one or more adjacent forward control channels having a signal strength below a predetermined threshold.

A method of communicating information from a premises to a central facility using cellular telecommunications frequencies, comprising the steps of:

• interfacing a transceiver module associated with said premises with an input device;
• scanning a plurality of forward control channels using said transceiver module and measuring a set of preselected characteristics associated with said forward control channels;
• selecting a usable forward control channel based on a comparison of said preselected characteristics associated with said forward control channel to a predetermined criteria, wherein said step of selecting said forward control channel includes the step of initially selecting one or more forward control channels from said plurality of forward control channels, said initially selected one or more forward control channels having a signal strength remaining below a preselected threshold, and the step of eliminating said initially selected forward control channels if adjacent in frequency to a forward control channel having a signal strength of a preselected value or higher, and the step of randomly selecting one of said one or more remaining said plurality of forward control channels;
• transmitting a message to a message processor for decoding the content of said message;
• and
• determining a reverse control channel corresponding to said selected forward control channel for transmission of said message to said central facility.