Monitoring Industry Asks for Alarm-VoIP Language from Senate

The central station industry continues to deal with the VoIP issue, and it recently aided the entire industry when it was able to get some wording that applied to consumer notification about alarms and VoIP into a telecommunications bill rewrite that the House Commerce Committee passed.

The CSAA is currently trying to work a similar route in the Senate, which is creating its own telecommunications rewrite bill. By calling its members to seek meetings with their Senators this week, the group is hoping that language will be written that will require the VoIP provider to notify the customer that they need to test their equipment, alert their alarm company, and arrange a 24-hour battery back-up to keep the modem for the VoIP service connected.

The industry is also seeking that such language be included with consumer VoIP gear that can be purchased from standard electronics and computer retailers.