Cellular Alarm Monitoring

Cellular Alarm Monitoring

Let’s talk about Cellular Alarm Monitoring. Why has this become such a hot topic? Because many people today will move into a new home and simply not get a home phone, a VOIP phone or a dial tone of any kind. Why does this matter? It matters because there has to be a way to transmit an alarm signal to our 24-hour central alarm monitoring station. In the past we and every other alarm company out there would always use the existing home phone to send that signal when needed. As of today, we find about 1 out of every 7 people calling for alarm monitoring services simply do not have a home phone or dial tone of any kind. It used to be called a POTS line or “plain old telephone service”. And, many people still get a POTS line. Also, many people will get a digital phone line like VOIP (like Vonage). Now days we simply refer to it as a dial tone since there are so many options out there.

Most of the time if you have a “dial tone” then we can utilize your existing transmission source (your home phone) to send the alarm signal when needed. You would need to call our office to let us know what type of dial tone you are getting, but the vast majority of the time we can get a signal sent with your dial tone of choice.

Let’s talk about why you would still want to get a home phone of some sort.

1. If you have satellite TV service then you may get a penalty from your satellite TV provider for not having a phone line hooked into each tuner that you have. They give you a penalty of about six dollars a month per tuner because you cannot order their pay per view services. You would need to of course call your satellite TV provider to find out if they charge you for not having a phone line hooked up. Also, it will impossible for you to order a movie from your remote if you had become accustomed to that convenience.
2. You can use a phone line for the occasional paper fax if you have a paper fax machine at home.
3. Long distance fees are usually far less expensive from a home phone line if you ever call outside of the country.
4. Of course simply for making phone calls. If you make a lot of phone calls or have a home office then you might keep the hard line.
5. You can use your regular phone line for dial up internet access or DSL access.

Now we are not necessarily promoting home phone lines and at the same time we feel like it is a good idea to point out some of the things that you would miss if you no longer had a home phone line.

Now that we are done with the phone line discussion let’s discuss using cellular monitoring. You can us cellular alarm monitoring to transmit all of your home security signals. If you have a phone line then use both your home phone line as well as the cellular alarm monitoring as a redundant signaling source. With that said, let’s list some reasons to use cellular alarm monitoring.

1. It costs way less than any other transmission source. If you aren’t going to be using a home phone line for anything besides your alarm monitoring then it would be a good idea to use cell monitoring. The average home phone bill is about $40 a month. Call Guardian for our current rates on cellular units and monitoring. Guardian consistently beats advertised rates. Remember, it costs something per month because usually the alarm company simply uses the transmission source that you already have to send a signal from when needed (hence you are paying for a transmission source). However, if you don’t have a transmission source (a home phone) then the alarm company must provide one for you and pay for it. This is through a specialty cellular company that makes a specialty unit that is just used to transmit alarm-monitoring signals.
2. It technically is more secure. The cellular alarm-monitoring unit is about the size of your hand and sits above the control panel in the closet. Now it is a wireless signal just like a cell signal but of course it cannot leave the house so the unit is stationary. They typically retail for $199 in the industry but Guardian gives you the unit free of charge and you just pay for the cellular monitoring fee. This unit sits above the control panel in a closet typically and since it is a wireless signal there is no exterior line that can be cut. We have heard of a landline being cut by a burglar on the outside of the home but it is an extremely rare occurrence. Guardian has installed 20,000 systems and has heard of a cut phone line only a few times. Remember, having the cell unit wouldn’t prevent the break-in. Burglars are not typically smart people; if they cut a wire on the outside of the home then they would proceed to enter anyway. You would simply have another transmission source to send a signal with while otherwise you wouldn’t but the burglar would be unaware that there was a cell unit in most cases. Alarm systems in general make you statistically 4 times less likely to be a target of a burglary or intrusion. Guardian isn’t making recommendations either way. The choice is yours.

To sum up, most people will continue to get a home phone line for some reason or another and it is a cost effective and great way to send an alarm-monitoring signal. However, if you don’t have a phone line and are using a wireless internet card for surfing the net and cell phones for phone calls then cellular alarm monitoring is the way to go for you. In either case, if you simply would like to have cellular alarm monitoring then we can definitely provide it at the best deal in the alarm industry and hook them up every day.

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