Monitored alarms seem to be the first stumbling block I've come across with switching to UFB.
The problem is that most alarms use a standard telephone line for sending information back to the monitoring centre. While it's technically possible to make some alarms work with a
Voice-over-IP (VoIP) line, I'm not hearing "Yes, it always works well".
And even if you can get it working, you then theoretically need an
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) on the network router - otherwise if you lose power (as happened frequently in earthquakes), you lose your alarm monitoring.
Seems that getting most alarms modified to work over a VoIP line will cost around $500.
Alternatively, we could swap to a wireless monitoring solutions that transmits up to Sugarloaf and then back down to a monitoring centre. But once again, that's about $500 to install - and then $45+GST (if I recall the conversation correctly) for monitoring each month.
SkyTV is another thing that will cause grief. To be able to order pay-to-view movies, the Sky box/decoder is plugged into a standard line. Would make sense that those requests could be sent over the internet, but that doesn't seem possible yet.
Not that it really worries me too much - last time I tried to use that option with Sky it failed. Tried calling customer services and they were completely useless.
We ended that call with me saying "Well since you don't seem capable of sorting this, I'll buy my movies from iTunes!".
So in reality, maybe it's about time to dump Sky. With high speed internet and the option to watch movies and tv through services such as Netflix it seems crazy to be paying them $46 per month for a very average offering and level of service.
In summary:
It appears you can get around the problems with having your alarm monitored, but you are likely to be up for an extra $
500 - or more if you need to swap to a different alarm system.