There has been a debate going on in Kirschenbaum's newsletter. Commenting on a discussion about monitoring, Lee Jones said:
We see trouble ahead. Wholesale monitoring firms, aka Third Party Monitoring, must be able to operate seamlessly across thousands of zip codes and municipalities. Most local munis have already, or will soon adopt legislation that will require monitoring sources to operate under a multitude of different, and often conflicting, local rules and regulations. Non-compliance will severely penalize the local security providers. Yes there are solutions to the problem, but it requires much cost and operational changes, a different business model… negating the current reasons to switch to wholesale. Those who switch now should have a well defined plan to take back local control if necessary….”
Bart Didden sent a blistering reply. The relevant section reads:
...any Stages central station can overnight adapt to any jurisdiction’s Law’s, Rule’s or other demands as to how they want us to communicate with them, 2 call, etc. If there is any complication its comes from the very dealers that Mr. Jones is attempting to warn.
Would you recommend self-monitoring your burglar alarms, or would you recommend third party wholesale monitoring? How about DIY monitoring like Teleguard or Alarm.com? Is there anybody out there who still runs their own central? Honeywell still sells MX8000s, after all, so somebody must be buying them.