VoIP and Home Security Systems

I'm starting to feel like a broken VoIP machine, but based on your responses, the VoIP-o-meter is high. A number of you asked for the definitive answer on home security systems and Internet telephones so I'll give it a whirl.

ADT, one of the major suppliers of home security systems, say they always recommend maintaining a basic landline telephone service for the transmission of ADT alarm signals, but there are alternatives. Theirs is a service called ADT Safewatch Cellguard, which provides your home with a cellular connection to ADT, bypassing your home's telephone service altogether. Safewatch is $199 for installation and then $12 a month, so it's probably cheaper to keep a bare minimum landline and your present system. The ADT website also talks about using cellular as a backup for when landline transmission goes down, which leads you to conclude that cellular lines are an ifier solution.

Some of the VoIP providers have workarounds. Vonage, for example, partners with Alarm.com. Alarm.com offers a phone line-independent security system  that wirelessly transmits alarm signals from a customer's home or business to a central monitoring station. The station then contacts local authorities in the event of an emergency. The service is around $35 a month and there are a number of installation plans, but you'll spend about $500.

Irwin Lazar has a great blog that tackles VoIP home security. He points to three reasons why VoIP is not a very good telephone system choice if you have a home security system. First, the alarm system needs to be able to take over the phone line in the case of an emergency, even if that phone has been left off the hook. Harder to do when your phone line is your broadband connection. Then there's the issue of backup power. If your router has no backup power system then an outage means it can't relay the alarm. And finally, according to Lazar, the tones in the alarm may not be processed correctly over VoIP.

The National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association (NBFAA) is urging its members to make sure consumers are notified about the problems involved in switching to VoIP services and is urging Congress to pass legislation to make certain that consumers are notified of the risks.

Bottom line: Home security and landlines are, for the moment, the way to go.