AlarmNet reliability how can it go down with no notice?

[Jerry <jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I use AlarmNet as my primary method of protection. I learned on
Tuesday evening after I tested my system, that my call center never
received an alarm signal.

After waiting 7 minutes for a call from the call center, I called them
and they reported no alarm! They asked me to trigger another alarm and
let it stay tripped for a whole minute. They still never received a
signal!

The next day a technician told me my system and radio was fine.
AlarmNet, was down for an undetermined amount of time and no one knew!
This blows my mind! Sure, networks fail and require maintenance from
time to time. There is no excuse why the call center can't have known
about the down network.

I made an assumption that my radio sent some kind of watch dog signal
to the central station every 10 minutes so they can make sure the
network is functioning. This is not the case, apparently. My call
center stays completely unaware when AlarmNet has any failure. This
has me very worried. I can no longer depend on the network at all.

Can anyone explain how AlarmNet works? There is no explination on
their website. The alarm companies don't seem to want to share with me
any technical details about how AlarmNet works. My position is that
the proper thing to do is to have each node on the network send a
short packet of data like [STX]station ID,Ready[ETX] every 10 minutes.
The load on the network would be minimal. We're talking less than 100
bytes of data multiplied by 50K or so radio sets: less than 50 megs of
data in 10 minutes. That works out to a loafing 10Kpbs throughput. The
call center would then know in ten minutes that my radio was no longer
communicating with the call center. The call center could then take
steps to find out why and notify me that something is wrong with my
system. Therefore, even though radio networks are not 100% reliable,
at least I can be 100% confidant that when my alarm system is armed, I
will know quickly when or if there is a problem.

I don't have telephone service, I use cell phones exclusively and my
provider doesn't have TCP/IP security implemented yet. This is why I
use AlarmNet as my primary security system.

I just can't believe that with today's digital technology there is a
huge gaping hole in wireless security systems like this. Words can't
express my utter disappointment in the overall design of the AlarmNet
network. Now I am forced, for my peace of mind, to test my system
every other day at irregular intervals: I simply can't trust it
anymore.