“We have made the decision to exit the home security business that we inherited with the 2016 Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks transactions,” Spectrum spokeswoman Lara Pritchard said in a statement Monday. “We are dedicated to making this a smooth transition for our home security customers and have partnered with Ring and Abode, two leading home security providers, to bring our customers exclusive offers and discounts on replacement security service and products.”
Due to the increased call volume that we have received, we felt it necessary to provide a full summary of Spectrum’s business changes, and available options for your current system. Spectrum sounded the alarm last year when they realized they were not equipped to handle the security market. The profit margin on their equipment was not meeting estimated revenue, and once the merger with Charter was complete they internally abandoned all hope of continuing the service.
Currently, all Spectrum systems will continue to work until February 5th, 2020; after that all systems will cease to function and will NOT transmit alarms to Spectrum’s central station. There are significant internal discussions going on between alarm vendors across the country to find viable solutions to “takeover” or reprogram the systems. As of January 6th, 2020, there are no solutions and the equipment vendor that supplied the equipment to Spectrum is refusing to open up the hardware for other vendors. See the discussion below for more technical information. This will ultimately leave all of their customers with worthless systems and without protection.
Unfortunately, the only option is to swap out all of the equipment, and replace it with a new system. We realize this is not what current Spectrum customers were hoping to hear, but it is the situation Spectrum created. We also feel it necessary to point out that Spectrum’s replacement recommendations (Ring and Abode) also have terrible track records with security.
When picking a home security system, we encourage potential customers to pick a reputable vendor that has a history of installing and maintaining security systems. At Liberty Security Services we have a 10 year history of installing open hardware allowing customers to adapt a system to their needs. We do not use “lockout codes” to keep customer hostage, and we do not sign customers into long term contracts.
If you are interested in replacing your current Spectrum system, please give us a call or use our contact page.