Choosing the right company to install you home or commercial security alarm monitoring system can be a somewhat tricky proposition considering the plethora of firms offering such services these days. Until relatively recently, residential and commercial security services used to be the sole domain of specialized alarm monitoring companies. Over the past few years though, a growing number of telecommunications and cable companies have begun offering such services as well. The trend has resulted in more choices and lower prices for consumers. However, it has not always translated into better security monitoring services for them.
The reasons are not hard to find. Telecoms and cable companies have been able to take advantage of their enormous size and economies of scale to offer attractively priced security-monitoring services for consumers. However, security is not their core competency. For most telecoms and cable companies, the security monitoring market is just another potential revenue stream and another way to generate more revenues per customer. Many of the larger players in Houston and other areas in the country are under intense revenue pressure in their core business markets and are looking to expand services by bundling security with residential phone, Internet and TV services.
In contrast, dedicated alarm monitoring companies are specialized at what they do and offer services that many cable firms and telecoms do not offer. Dedicated security firms for instance, routinely monitor for threats such as carbon monoxide poisoning, flooding, smoke and fire. In addition, the bigger firms typically maintain a central monitoring center to receive and respond to security alerts and to communicate with the police, fire department and other first responders in the event of an incident. Not all telecom services do this. Some alert solely to you and do not relay an alarm to a central monitoring facility.
You also need to be careful about what exactly you get with a bundled security service from a telecom provider. Some telecom companies in the Houston area charge a hefty one-time fee for a monitoring console and sensors. If you have a large home, or want remote control capabilities, you will probably end up having to pay extra for the additional equipment as well. Such additional costs can chip away at any saving you think you might obtain from a lower-cost monitoring service. So, when it comes to having a security monitoring system installed for your home or business, you need to look beyond the service price tag at some of these other factors as well.
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