King picks up RTC Alarm Monitoring Services

HACKENSACK, N.J.-A 13-year-old contract central station sold its operations to King-Monital-IDC in December so its telecom parent company could focus on other markets, company officials said. SureWest Communications sold its security subsidiary RTC Alarm Monitoring Services to King in order to expand the company's core telecommunications operations, including broadband, DSL and Internet offerings, said Brian Strom, president and chief executive officer of SureWest. "Alarm businesses have a national scope and SureWest Communications' business strategy has evolved into one of being a regional provider," Strom said. "Accordingly, we believe the alarm business will be better served with a national provider." A high percentage of RTC's 300 dealers and accounts were concentrated in California, Strom said. With its 40,000 accounts, RTC is King's third acquisitions this year. The move cements King's hold on the contract monitoring market with more than half a million accounts monitored throughout North America. RTC's accounts were mostly residential. King has already started construction on a new dealer care facility that will be based in Roseville, a location that will have a staff of sales and customer support for RTC's dealers and other King customers in that region, said Peter Giacalone, vice president of sales and dealer services. RTC's central station in Roseville will be closed and the accounts will be monitored from a King central station in California, he said. Construction on the dealer care center, one of six similar facilities across the country, was expected to be completed early this year, Giacalone said. Giacalone said RTC was a good, strategic acquisition for his company, particularly since RTC's central already operated on the MAS platform, like King's monitoring network does.