Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone service is a very popular alternative to a traditional POTS (plain old telephone service) telephone line, generally offering many more features at a lower monthly price.   MyAlarmMonitoring.com supports monitoring of your alarm system through popular Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone services such as Vonage, MagicJack, Ooma and others while many of our competitors do not.  However there are several considerations to make before deciding to monitoring your home or business through a VoIP connection:

1. VoIP requires a Constant Internet Connection. If you internet connection goes down or is disrupted, your alarm panel will be unable to communicate with our monitoring center.
2. VoIP requires Power. Your VoIP telephone service operates by using a router connected to the internet to deliver telephone service, and that router requires power.  If the power goes out or is distrupted, your phone service will not work and your panel will be unable to communicate with our monitoring center.  The advantage of a traditional phone line is that it is always powered, even when your power is out.
   
3. Quality of Service. The quality of service varies widely between VoIP service providers and the quality of service varies based upon available bandwidth and other factors.  We are successfully monitoring customers who have Vonage, Magic Jack, and Ooma telephone services, however this isn't a guarentee that it will work with your service.
   

We recommend to all of our customers with VoIP or without a traditional landline to consider either primary or backup Cellular Monitoring. This adds an additional layer of reliability that is invaluable for monitoring and protecting your home or busienss.

VoIP Carriers (click for more information on setup and settings)

• Vonage
• MagicJack
• Ooma
  

VoIP Alarm Monitoring - Quick Tips
VoIP telephone service is different and can affect the safety and reliability of your alarm system.  We've got a couple of tips before you decide to have your alarm system monitored over VoIP.

1. Reliability - VoIP relies upon both power and your internet connection and is therefore less reliable than a traditional telephone line.  Therefore if your internet connection goes down or your power goes out, you lose telephone service and your alarm system will not report correctly to the central station.  You can install a battery backup UPC and connect your broadband modem, router and VoIP device to help mitigate this.
2. Disable Caller ID Blocking - Caller ID blocking is a feature that many VoIP providers offer their customers for added privacy, however if your caller ID is blocked our monitoring centers will not be able to identify your alarm system.  We require that caller ID blocking is disabled.
3. Maximize Quality of Service - Many VoIP providers allow customers to change the quality of telephone service to reduce bandwidth usage by the VoIP service.  This can have a negative effect on the alarm signals and therefore we recommend setting the quality of service to the maximum level. This can generally be done by logging in to your VoIP account and find this option under 'settings' or 'preferences'.