Hi people,
I'm a newbie, playing with the idea of a DIY system. I'm a bit confused about the monitoring market - just saw a website for a monitoring service in northern CA with various plans (around 8 different ones).
These plans each had an install-price and a monitoring fee. Not surprisingly, as the number of "included sensors" increases, the install-price increases. But what I don't quite get is that the monitoring fee also increases.
Now in one case, I can see that the addition of cell-backup might increase the monitor's cost (paid to alarmnet or whoever). But otherwise, it seems like there really is no difference in the service provided.
Is the monitoring cost variation due to:
1) attempt to recapture some portion of the initial cost the equipment base 2) higher average cost of maintaining that larger equipment base 3) assumption that the customer is willing to pay more (monthly) for higher-end system 4) something elseTIA.