Re: question about VOIP and liability

[robertlbass@xxxxxxxxxxx]

> Let's not make this more complicated than it really is.  The real question
> is, does your insurance company have the right to deny coverage if you
> connect an alarm system to a VOIP service?  I've read my policy, and the
> answer is no.

All of the blather in ASA about VoIP is not going to change the fact
that VoIP or something like it is going to replace the vast majority of
POTS lines in the not too distant future.  Some telco's are already
using VoIP to handle their long distance calls rather than paying for
conventional lines.

I remember when I was just getting started nearly 30 years ago "high
security" systems used leased telephone lines to connect to the
monitoring facility or, in some cases, to the police department.  When
the telcos stopped offering new leased lines the industry fretted over
the loss of secure lines (as though leased lines weren't easy to
subvert).  Eventually, most installations went to digital
communication, sometimes backed up by RF telemetry and later via
cellular.  As I recall the sky didn't fall.  I doubt it will this time
either.

Now some folks are all upset about VoIP.  Get over it.  The fact is
that more and more of your clients *are* going to choose VoIP no matter
what you tell them.  Learn to deal with it.  There are monitoring
options for VoIP which will work as long as you provide power to the
modem and router.  True, the VoIP connection won't work if the DSL or
cable connection goes down.  But that's not much different from the
problem of down phone lines.  After a bad storm, both are subject to
outages.

This isn't a threat to your businesses.  It's an opportunity to expand
your product offering.  If you don't find ways to deal with it,
competing services like Next Alarm ($8.95 a month for monitoring
burglary and fire) will beat you to it.  Come to think of it, they
already have.  ISTR they offer a TCP/IP monitoring solution that works
where the customer chooses VoIP.

Regards,
Robert L Bass
www.BassBurglarAlarms.com