No longer just a solution for remote accounts, cellular now is the preferred alarm communications method for many alarm dealers. Here’s what dealers need to know about their cellular choices — and what’s new with the technology.
How people communicate with one another has undergone enormous changes in the last few years — and as a result, the home phone line that for decades was a cornerstone of customers’ alarm systems has begun to seem like an endangered species. According to the Federal Communications Commission, about two-thirds of U.S. homes now have a broadband connection such as DSL or a cable modem. And increasing numbers of Americans are also using that connection to support voice service using VOIP. Combine this with the near-ubiquity of cell phones and we now have a situation where many households have no traditional telephone. Even if households haven’t made that choice yet, alarm dealers increasingly want to be prepared for the possibility that they will.
For the alarm industry, this has meant rethinking how the alarm system communicates with the central station and has led to increased use of alarm systems that rely on the Internet — or, more commonly, on cellular for communications.