said by IowaCowboy:Hopefully they'll follow Comcast and offer the Home Automation/Control offering without the monitored security portion.
For the security portion I prefer traditional alarm systems that are made by companies like DSC or Honeywell/Ademco and monitored by local central stations. The panel used by Comcast/TWC is known by security professionals as "toilet alarms" as they can be disabled by throwing the controller in the nearest toilet.
I am seriously considering the home automation offering by Comcast but I have my security through a local company.
It cannot be disabled by throwing it into the toilet or smashing it. If the backend server does not receive a disarm signal after a certain period of time after an entry delay starts or a perimeter zone is tripped an alarm signal is sent by the backend server to the central monitoring station.
Also the panel used by cable companies can be used to takeover DSC and Honeywell equipment.