Home Insecurity: Does your alarm system work?

(WOIO) - If you have a home alarm system, security experts say your system could soon be at risk because of cell phone service. According to experts, your safety could be in jeopardy becauseold cell towers are being deactivated.

When emergencies happen, you count on your alarm system to keep you safe. But there is growing concern your system could fail when you need it most. Security experts, like Richard Soloway,CEO of Napco Security Technologies, are sounding the alarm about the deactivation of 2G towers. Those towers are used to communicate with many home security systems.

"We want to notify the homeowner to call the alarm company and be proactive and get the alarm system changed over beforeyou lose the communication and your emergencies won't be reported," he said.

The towers are also used to operate cell phones. With the demand for better and faster service, phone companies are moving away from 2G to 3G and 4G towers. No 2G means systems operatingon them will not be able to communicate with alarm companies if there's a problem.

Soloway says 2G users will need an updated communication box.

"You never know when this is going to happen. It could happen tomorrow. You have to get your alarm systems upgradedand do it immediately," he said.

If you have an alarm system, this may all sound a bit scary, so we wanted to know just how concerned should you be. The experts we talked to say while you shouldn't panic, this isa reason to contact your alarm company to make sure it is making the necessary changes to keep you safe.

"No one knows when the tower has gone out until it happens. So from a burglar's point of view, it is not likeyou are going to sit around and say, 'Oh gee, this section of town or this block, doesn't have any alarm service. I will go break into those people's houses,'" said Wayne Boggs, another CEO for an alarm company.

Boggs says most in the industry are aware of the changes and are alerting customers.

ADT, one of the largest security companies, sent a statement saying, "We are proactively reachingout to customers in any impacted areas as needed, and providing a 3G system upgrade."

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Home Insecurity: Does your alarm system work?