Companies Partner to Fight VoIP Flaw
Alarm.com, SunRocket Team on VoIP Home Security
VoIP is becoming mainstream but it still has enough drawbacks to make it a hassle for some consumers. A big one is the general inability of a VoIP network to work with many existing home security systems that are accustomed to sending information via traditional analog phone lines.
This conundrum has led SunRocket, an Internet phone company, to partner with Alarm.com, a wireless security and activity monitoring provider, so consumers can have both VoIP and home security without keeping an extra landline.
It's a point of pain for VoIP providers like SunRocket to deal with subscribers who want their service but are not excited about the idea of maintaining a landline to connect to their home security systems.
"To make that less painful financially, Alarm.com has partnered with SunRocket to give customers a discount to upgrade their system to a VoIP-compatible system," said Mary Knebel, vice president of business development at Alarm.com.
The important term is compatible. Alarm.com's system is not VoIP nor is it broadband; it's a wireless network that uses either GSM or two-way paging networks to transmit home security information to the Alarm.com servers. It's still an extra step for the consumer because it doesn't link directly to and is not a part of the SunRocket VoIP service, but the companies hope the cost savings allay some of the hassle.
"It offers our existing customers as well as potential customers an option if they're considering a home security system," said SunRocket spokesman Brian Lustig. "There's nothing that has to be done on the customer side in terms of their SunRocket adapter or equipment; they're just fully compatible because Alarm.com is a wireless solution and it can communicate back to their servers without any issues."
The only issue is that this is still a hole in the VoIP portfolio.
"We're not where we need to be as an industry in terms of this type of solution," Lustig agreed. "There is progress being made in the sense that VoIP providers are working on solutions that provide more compatibility and probably working with different home security providers."
But...
"Until a lot of that gets cleared up and there's more of a universal solution … this is a nice alternative for customers," he said.