Over 26 mil­lion Cana­di­ans owned cell phones by 2013, which rep­re­sents more than one per house­hold.  This num­ber con­tin­ues to climb.  The pop­u­lar­i­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty and con­ve­nience of mobile phones, espe­cial­ly smart phones, has seen the impor­tance of tra­di­tion­al land­lines drop off sig­nif­i­cant­ly.

In fact what many peo­ple are find­ing is that when the ‘land­line’ phone rings, it’s more often than not from one of three peo­ple: an old­er rel­a­tive, a poll­ster, or worse… a tele­mar­keter.

As a result it’s not sur­pris­ing to see 15% of house­holds use exclu­sive­ly Cell Phone users and this num­ber jumps to 50% of house­holds led by the 18–34 year olds.   The tech­no­log­i­cal improve­ments in VOIP and ser­vices like Skype, Apple’s “Face time”, and Blackberry’s  “BBM Video” all are tak­ing away the need for land­lines in homes.

So what does all this mean to you, your home secu­ri­ty sys­tem and pos­si­bil­i­ties?   The answers are quick­ly chang­ing, and the news is most­ly good.  Here are a few things you should know:

1) Call your alarm com­pa­ny BEFORE you make any ser­vice changes to your land­line if you cur­rent­ly have a mon­i­tored alarm sys­tem. Being informed can save you mon­ey and headaches.

2) Land­lines are still a secure reli­able form of com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and tra­di­tion­al phone com­pa­nies don’t want to lose your busi­ness, so put on your nego­ti­at­ing hat, call your phone com­pa­ny and nego­ti­ate a bet­ter price.  The major phone com­pa­nies have “cus­tomer reten­tion” depart­ments that are ful­ly pre­pared to give sig­nif­i­cant dis­counts to retain your busi­ness.

3) VOIP (Voice over inter­net pro­to­col) phone ser­vice is NOT equiv­a­lent to con­ven­tion­al dig­i­tal phone lines,  while you may be able to have a con­ver­sa­tion suc­cess­ful­ly on a ‘mag­ic jack” con­nec­tion, it does not mean devices like Alarm sys­tems etc., are com­pat­i­ble.

4) The good news is that Alarm Indus­try has embraced all the new tech­nol­o­gy avail­able. The results are some great new options for you.  Excit­ing and very use­ful new options can be but a few steps away.

Now more than ever, with increas­ing­ly busy lifestyles, we need secu­ri­ty sys­tems, that like our smart­phones, are inter­ac­tive flex­i­ble and reli­able.  With prod­ucts and ser­vices like Total Con­nect from PROTECTION PLUS ®, your alarm sys­tem can uti­lize your inter­net ser­vice, a cel­lu­lar net­work or a land­line to be mon­i­tored.  Now with the inter­net con­nec­tion your alarm sys­tem can offer much more than basic secu­ri­ty, it can be the hub for some great home automa­tion con­ve­niences. Con­trol your alarm, your lights, ther­mo­stat and more… all from the touch of smart­phone or tablet.  Plus receive email alerts for any alarm activ­i­ty includ­ing when the kids get home from school!   It’s all about “being con­nect­ed” call us to find out how to join.

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Allan Baum
Security Industry veteran with over 30+ years in the industry. Founded family owned and operated Protection Plus in 1994 with his wife and has overseen its growth since. In addition to working with his wife and son, Allan has assigned the role of Chief Canine Officer to his trusted dog Waub, who joins him at the office every day.