Last month, Sector Alarm announced that it had selected Telenor Connexion to supply wireless connectivity for its residential home alarm and security systems.
Sector Alarm, which boasts over 130,000 subscribers across Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, is said to be focused on expanding its market presence and therefore "needs a reliable product" according to Henrik Rosell, Regional Sales Manager at Telenor Connexion.
But what does Henrik mean when he refers to Sector Alarm needing a reliable product and how might the company be planning on increasing its market presence?
Traditionally, home security systems have made use of fixed line infrastructure such as telephone lines and broadband cables to provide connectivity to a central monitoring station. However, the main disadvantage of these system types is the fact that fixed lines can be severed bypotential house burglars. Wireless connectivity, on the other hand, cannot. Furthermore, cellular systems are secure from environmental issues such as storms and power outages and also do not have any impact on telephone or broadband Internet access.
Does Sector Alarm have home automation on the horizon?
When I first read the announcement, I immediately thought of Vivint. The company has been making waves over in North America with its cellular-based home security system, which also provides basic home automation capabilities such as appliance control and energy management. In the space of just five years, Vivint (formerly APX Alarm), has gone from being unranked to its current position at number four in the SDM Top 100 list of largest residential security installation and monitoring organizations. The company claims that by offering home automation alongside home security, attrition has fallen by two-thirds and customers have cancelled at a much lower rate.
Vivint’s spectacular ascent can’t have gone unnoticed and it would come as no surprise to me, therefore, if Sector Alarm was planning on emulating Vivint and looking at providing home automation capabilities in the future as part of the aforementioned plan to expand its market presence.
ABI Research’s will be publishing a new report that examines the market for home automation systems provided by home security companies in the next few weeks. The report forms part of the firm’s Home Automation Research Service which also examines the entrance into the home automation market of other service providers such as utilities, telcos and cable operators.
