Question:
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Has any legal cases been brought up yet against the cable and phone companies.
Daily comcast cable and now ATT&T Uverse voip installations they disconnect the alarm phone line.
I am an older alarm company so I have many alarm clients with older alarm systems that do not display a loss of phone or fail to communicate.
If the client does not do a test it may not be found out until there is a break-in and no signal is sent to the central station.
Are phone and cable companies being sued for their negligence ?
I would consider it gross negligence. How hard is it for the phone tech to look on the wall when you walk in the house and ask Mrs. Jones that you see a keypad and is your alarm tied into the phone line.
STEVE GOLDBERG
ALERT SECURITY SYSTEMS INC.
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Answer:
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Good question; I don't have an answer. I doubt there have been any lawsuits against the well heeled VoIP providers. Homeowners in particular have been left without working alarm systems when they switch to cable VoIP. Inevitably the homeowner then blames the alarm company for the alarm failure and demands the monitoring service be restored, at the alarm company's expense. We've had many cases where the homeowners consider the alarm company in default for failing to restore the alarm monitoring service without charge. We generally prevail in those cases since the alarm company is not at fault.
Local alarm companies need to reach out to these VoIP providers and make them more sensitive to this problem.
Whether a VoIP provider can be sued for a loss after disconnecting the alarm system is certainly not a stretch of the imagination. However I would be surprised if the terms and conditions of the VoIP service did not include provisions that deal with the loss of alarm service, with no liability attaching to the VoIP provider.
Incidentally, the Disclaimer Notice still warns subscribers that VoIP is not as reliable as regular plain old telephone service. Be sure to use the Disclaimer Notice with new and old subscribers.