The security alarm industry faces yet another challenge: the emergence of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone service. It is a major issue that needs to be addressed to allow companies to continue to provide alarm-monitoring services to their customers.
The problems of attempting to utilize our legacy dialers exist today and may never be fully resolved. Several industry organizations have attempted to test various manufacturer panels, using a multitude of high-speed Internet connections and several types of VoIP telephone adapters. The results of this testing have been, at best, inconclusive. There are too many variables in VoIP to expect that alarm communications will be as reliable as the service provided by POTS (plain old telephone service) lines.
Several manufacturers have brought alternative signaling systems to the market in the past few months. Our experience at Damar Security Systems has been that Internet alarm communications is extremely fast and generally very reliable. We have had experience with the Honeywell AlarmNet-I, the DSC TL-250, the Teldat MIP and a product from Canadian company Level 6 Communications.
Alarm Dealers in the United States and Canada will be using the Internet as a means of transmitting alarm signals. As such, these dealers will need to address the contractual issues surrounding the use of the Internet. This article suggests contract clauses that identify these concerns.
Alarm companies and central stations should make it clear in their contracts who carries responsibility for customers’ connections to the Internet. In most cases, that task lies with the customer, and dealers should make sure their clients know that. Clauses can cover standby power and the upkeep of the Internet connection between the customer and the alarm monitor. With the customer’s name signed on, both the installer and those receiving the installation take ownership of the means of transmitting alarm calls.
While one may not agree with the approaches detailed here, it will at least give a few things to think about.
Remind Customers That Service Uses the Internet
The monitoring service being provided to you will use the public Internet as the means of communication of alarm signals from your premises to our central station.
While this may seem pretty basic, it is advisable to identify this fact in writing to your customer right up front. It will reduce your liability exposure should something go wrong and signals are not received.
Customer Responsible for Connection to Internet
The provision of public Internet service to your premises is your responsibility. You are encouraged to select an Internet service provider that provides adequate standby power and 24-hour support service. Where your Internet service provider requires that your connection be verified, authenticated or “logged on,” it will be your responsibility to provide the necessary software and/or equipment to accomplish this requirement.
This clause will clearly identify that the oversight of the Internet service is not the alarm dealer’s responsibility. Should the Internet connection be required to be logged on, the customer is responsible for this function.
will supply and install an Internet signal transmitter (IST) connected to your security alarm system control unit. It will be your responsibility to provide, within 5 feet of your security alarm control unit, a suitable RJ-45 Ethernet connection into which we will plug our IST. The key point made here is that the customer has the responsibility to provide the network connection for the IST.
Standby Power Proves to Be Tough to Tackle
It will be your responsibility to provide standby electrical power to your ADSL, cable modem and any other devices such as routers, hubs or switches that may affect the Internet communications with a recommended standby duration of 24 hours, but in all cases not less than 15 minutes. will provide standby power for the IST for a minimum of 4 hours but your attention is drawn to the fact that communications will fail if the power for your modem, routers, hubs, switches, etc. is interrupted.
Standby power for Internet alarm communications is going to be a real problem for most alarm dealers. If you consider that all network devices — including modems, routers and switches between the signal transmitter and the Internet — are usually powered by 120VAC, you can understand the problems that will arise when you try to provide 8, 12 or 24 hours of standby power. Standby power must be the customer’s responsibility.
The IST and its companion receiver in our central station will communicate with each other over the public Internet on a regular basis. In accordance with the requirements of Canadian standards, our central station will receive alarm signals within 60 seconds and will be alerted to a failure in the communication facilities (Internet) within 180 seconds.
This clause clearly states the obligation of the alarm dealer to install appropriate equipment that meets certain minimum published standards. For use in the U.S., there may need to be a modification to the signal transmission time and communication failure times.
Explain to the Customer the Internet Might Fail
You are advised that a failure in the communication facilities may occur for any number of reasons including, but not limited, to: A) Intentional cutting or severing of communication cables entering your premises; B) Loss of commercial electrical power and a subsequent failure or depletion of standby power; C) A failure of your modem, hub, router, switch or other equipment in the Internet path within your premises; D) A failure of the IST; E) A failure or malfunction of an Internet service provider or its facilities; F) Any other failure beyond the control of .
Just so there is no doubt in the customer’s mind — yes, the Internet will fail. Nothing wrong in giving the customer a friendly reminder.
Network Failure Could Mean Thousands of Alerts
When our central station is alerted of a failure in the communication facilities, the event will be assigned a low priority and you or your designate will be notified as soon as is reasonably possible.
Certainly there may be some objection to the intent of this clause. Before you decide to throw it out, consider what will happen in your central station when there is a major failure of the Internet for 10 minutes or more and 10,000 Internet monitoring accounts all report a loss of communications.
That doesn’t mean to leave the job to a machine. Many monitoring automation systems could not handle this many signals within a very short time.
Customer Responsibility Is to Restore Internet Service.
Upon receiving notification of a failure in the communication facilities, it will be your responsibility to verify that the public Internet service to your premises is functioning correctly. Once you have determined that your public Internet connection is working properly, it will be your responsibility to telephone our central station and determine if alarm communications have been restored.
When the Internet does fail, the alarm dealer will likely be powerless when it comes to getting it restored. The alarm dealer and/or the central station probably doesn’t know who is the customer’s ISP.
Even if they did, the ISP will most likely not work with anyone other than their customer of record, no more than a central station would reveal its client’s security codes to the ISP without the customer’s permission.
Tell Clients Who Must Pay for Service Calls
It is important to establish with your customer who will pay if there are technical service calls as a result of a failure of the Internet, as seen with this contra
ct clause:
If the services of a <Alarm Company Name> technician are required, a service charge will apply if no fault is found in the security system or the IST but a problem is observed in your public Internet connection or any equipment associated with the public Internet connection, or as a result of a failure of the standby power for your equipment. In the event of a problem with the IST, repair service charges will not apply if the IST is under warranty or is covered by an extended warranty agreement.
More Operator Traffic Means Extra Workload
It is agreed and understood that <Alarm Company Name> has no control over the provision of public Internet service to you and/or your premises and as such, <Alarm Company Name> has no control over the reliability of the service nor does <Alarm Company Name> have any control over the provision of primary or standby power for the Internet modem, hubs, routers, switches or other equipment on your premises. If, in the sole opinion of <Alarm Company Name>, there are excessive failures in the communication facilities resulting in additional and unusual expenses incurred in the reporting and clearing of signals, <Alarm Company Name> may, at its sole discretion, levy additional charges to you as our compensation for the additional and unusual costs.
As an owner or operator of a central station (or in Canada, a signal receiving centre), you need to be prepared for the potential of a significant increase in operator traffic as a result of Internet-connected alarm monitoring customers.
There should be a provision to charge back the extra workload as a result of Internet failures. The alarm dealer must be in a position to recover some of the cost involved in providing Internet monitoring, and the central station must be allowed to recover some of this additional cost.
‘Net Monitoring Not As Good an Idea as Supervised Line
Contractual considerations are absolutely necessary prior to providing alarm monitoring services through the Internet.
Every Internet signaling system we have seen provides the capability of “supervising” the communications path. However, while all the manufacturers will promote this capability, alarm dealers must not offer Internet communications as a supervised line.
We all know that false alarms are the greatest threat this industry faces. If Internet communications are offered as supervised services, the false alarm rate will skyrocket, and we will do a lot more damage to the industry’s reputation.
