Cellular Advances in Home Security

Due to the ever-changing technology of the telecommunications industry, the Alarm Industry has also had to make it’s own changes to keep up. There was a time that no phone line meant no protection. Most monitored alarm systems require that a home be equipped with a traditional, analog landline telephone service to allow the security system to communicate (in the case of a break-in) with an emergency dispatch station (for police notification). However, as the ubiquitous use of cell phones continues to increase, as well as the increasing popularity of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone services offered by internet companies, traditional landline phone services are becoming more scarce and, consequently, pose a problem for alarm systems that have always relied on phone-line communication to notify the police of a break-in. The past few years, however, have given the Alarm Industry some new solutions to this challenge—the most successful being the use of cellular units for communicating between the home and the emergency dispatch station in the even of an intrusion.

Similar to a cell phone, this device works in conjunction with the rest of the security equipment and, rather than transmitting information via phone lines, will transmit emergency information to a dispatch station through wireless signals. This means that no phone line is necessary. Unfortunately, many alarm companies still follow the practice of only using equipment that will perform in combination with a landline phone because the use of cellular communication units (cell units, as they’re more commonly called) can be costly and the subsequent need to pass that cost to the consumer results in fewer people willing to make the purchase. However, Alarm.com, one of the primary companies that has led the industry in cellular communication, is one of the few companies that has proven itself successful in finding a way to provide cellular alarm services for those without traditional landlines.

Unlike many other cellular service providers, Alarm.com’s specialized focus has allowed them to develop cellular security equipment (partnered with General Electric) that is small enough to be unobtrusive (and in some instances completely hidden in accessory hardware equipment) and at a price close enough to traditional monitoring costs to be effectively indistinguishable. In fact, with this type of affordable equipment, homeowners now have the option of choosing to add, as an additional protection, a cellular unit to their system to backup a traditional phone line in the event of any failure. More importantly, with these new advances, home security is now technologically, and financially, accessible to homeowners without traditional phone lines.