When home security first became prominent and a household standard back in the 1990s, homeowners were jumping on the bandwagon and installing these devices almost as fast as the sales rep's selling them were asking for their signatures on their new three-year alarm monitoring contract. And like most things, while these systems were sufficient, they were very much a product of their time.

Back then, nobody even knew what an alarm monitoring contract was, let alone how burdensome that three-year agreement ended up being. Further, nobody realized that these systems communicated through a phone line and if a burglar cut your line, the system was useless. And of course, with all the ongoing changes in technology, these devices continued (and continue) to grow more obsolete by the day. Sadly, there are still security companies installing these push-button analogue phone line alarms. They do it because the devices are cheap, and they bank on the people buying them not being aware of their latest options.