NextAlarm.com's free alarm service

OJAI, Calif.--NextAlarm.com introduced two new alarm notification services designed for homeowners and small to medium-sized businesses. The NextAlarm Plan and Free NextAlarm Notify Plan offer alarm notification services at no cost or for a monthly rate of $5. The free monitoring service is supported by online advertising. According to Alex Elliot, president and chief executive officer of NextAlarm.com, "The ads will be on the web site, and the frequency of logging on for each customer is quite high--they may go on once a day to look at history. Up to three emails per day are sent to clients with the free service." This service is being offered exclusive of central station dispatch. "There is no central station intervention, which makes it possible to do it at those rates. But either of those services can be upgraded instantly on the web to include dispatch. For full service dispatch, it's $11.95 a month," said Elliot. NextAlarm's services are notification-only, based on an automated system. When an alarm is triggered, the customer is contacted by e-mail, SMS, or text pager, and is also notified of which alarm zone has been breached. NextAlarm, which started as a VoIP solution company, was founded by Elliot in 2000. "We anticipated the VoIP problem coming and built our server-based systems with a VoIP solution in mind," said Elliot. "The intent was always to prepare for the IP revolution." Elliot admitted that his company "got a lot of flack in the beginning [for offering its services at such a low cost], but not so much anymore. What we offer is a realistically priced monitoring service that all the majors provide."