More and more people are dropping their traditional telephony system in favor of the latest trends in phone service, VoIP. The draw to such a change is most often cost related. Traditional phone companies charge use fees and by the minute charges, coupled with long distance fees. VoIP companies are charging a flat fee somewhere between $15.00 to $30.00 US per month, for unlimited calls to anywhere in the US and Canada.
VoIP works by digitizing voice signals from your phone and sending them over the Internet via your home or business computer. While people are scrambling to make the switch and begin to count the money they are saving, they may not realize that there is a good possibility that they are cutting the link between their alarm system and the monitoring station. Another link that is lost in most cases is traditional 911 services, as VoIP does not capture data for emergency response.
When your alarm goes off due to an attempted break in, is no time to find out that the monitoring response that you have been faithfully paying for is not available for you. The Alarm Company has no way of knowing that you switched services.