Seems like the whole thing is just a clusterf of bad information.
Hard to believe that this is already for sale and apparently you have to go out of your way to find out what does and does not come in the box 
So now cellular backup has always been an option, but there’s no mention of a cost? I wonder if it’s free.
I know with ADT’s current offering it is free, but you have to purchase the cellular module for your system. This is what we have at our business. If I recall, it was $99 for the module with no increase to the $32.99 monthly that we pay for a traditional system.
I couldn’t resist… I just bought the panel at Best Buy and it’s set to arrive Thursday. It’s going to be annoying having to rebuild my system but I figure I’m going to first use the ADT panel and sensors by themselves and then slowly migrate standard ST devices to the ADT hub if it seems like it’s worth it. With that said, I will definitely experiment with the panel and try various smartapps and devices to see how it performs.
Part of me even flirts with the idea of having a segmented system between automation and security and keeping my current ST system intact. I have two reasons for possibly taking this route:
I’m not sure how powerful the ADT panel is but I suppose there could be a latency issue when it comes to prioritizing critical tasks (e.g. triggering the alarm) versus normal tasks (e.g. turning on a light at 6PM). I would hope the panel is powerful and smart enough to account for these sorts of prioritization issues but I have a massive system so who knows.
It’s very likely there are going to be bugs with the ADT Panel. It may thus be wise to migrate slowly in order to give the system time to mature. It’s even possible some devices that work with the v2 hub may not work at all with the ADT panel… who knows though.
Anyhow, feel free to ask me any questions when I get the system on Thursday.
It is also “built in” to the ADT Pulse system cost. Works well, too, from our experience…
As for task priorities, I doubt if you’d care if Smart Lights was delayed 30-seconds if an alarm because of a security breach occurred, LOL.
Looking forward to your hands-on review! 
oh man, this caused me to literally laugh out loud. Classic!
I agree with all the points here. Seems to me that the real lure of a monitored security system is for peace of mind and a reduction in insurance costs (homeowners). But for me my self monitoring with cameras integrated into Smartthings provides that needed peace of mind and allows me to be in control whether or not I need emergency services (fire, police, etc) on the scene to deal with a situation. So what is really missing is the insurance industry recognizing this self monitoring for the purposes of homeowner’s discounts. I certainly have no intention of spending hundreds of additional dollars to add this service for my current setup. If Smartthings wants to really make a significant impact in this space its service needs to have the ability to learn our habits and automatically set things and arrange things to make life more convenient and to provide the appearances of a lived in home even when I am away on vacation without my specific intervention.
The physical keyfob button probably won’t work for me (i’m quadriparetic, so voice options are a lot easier), but that will probably work for the use cases we’ve just been discussing for most people as long as it also works when The panel is running on battery power. ( i’ve learned to take nothing for granted with these low end systems. 
)
I’m actually concerned about the complete opposite happening – a legitimate alarm alert trigger being delayed so that some other automation can take place. Ultimately, I hope the new hub is capable of prioritizing tasks in a logical way (e.g. alarm alerts should carry a greater weight than ALL other tasks).
I don’t understand where this “delay” concern is coming from…?
SmartThings does stuff nearly asynchronously, so any lack of prioritization impacts events by a few seconds at worst.
ADT’s monitoring response sequence (ie, call the primary phone number, ask for password, then call secondary number(s), then call police… etc) is substantially slower than any basic automation and/or alarm trigger delay would ever be… Right?
Honestly, my delay concern may very well be coming from a lack of understanding of how the system works 
. With that said, my thought is that if a variety of events are triggering when an alarm triggers can’t this increase response time if there is no task prioritization taking place? For instance, I’ve had delays of over 30+ seconds in the past between different triggers when the hub is especially busy. I should mention I have a VERY large system. I’ve lost track how many devices I have but its probably close to a 100 or perhaps even more.
Regardless, I realize the delay is very small in the grand scheme of things, especially considering the human aspect of it all. If the delay exists, though, this could be a reason to segment the two networks (even if it just provides a placebo ‘peace of mind’ benefit).
There are a “lot” of users with over 100 Things.
Separate SmartApps run concurrently and asynchronously. Unless the SmartThings Cloud is having issues or you have exceptionally slow internet or complex SmartApps, 30 seconds for a Thing triggered event is quite unexpected… Well, except for the Scheduler?
Remember… Very little runs in the Hub. There is a massively parallel Cloud running everything.
Good to hear it shouldn’t be an issue. I admittedly don’t know much about the ST platform from a technical standpoint. I’m also not really sure what exactly has caused my latency issues but its definitely not an Internet issue… perhaps its a ST cloud issue or some other weird bug. Anyhow, I’m still going to migrate slowly to the new hub. It seems like its still unclear if devices will be 100% compatible and if there will be any missing functionality between the standard ST platform and the ADT branded one. I’m sure there will also be bugs. As such, a staggered approach seems to make the most sense considering how much I rely on ST.
FAQ has been updated. Looks like we’re back on track
“If there is a Wi-Fi outage, the LTE cellular backup will immediately take over for continuous service of alarm and life safety event notifications to ADT Monitoring Services.”
Does anyone know if existing adt sensors can be paired in place of the ones that come with it? My house has a few recessed 2gig sensors in the doors and sensors on the windows, if they can pair to this I might decide to get it. The panel looks like a modified 2gig panel…
That’s covered above in this thread. They do not.
Has anyone come across a hands-on review?
Would someone who has this installed with the cellular communications working let us know if the panel switches to battery power and an alert condition occurs, and you have not signed up for ADT monitoring, will you get alerts on your phone like you would if the panel was still on mains power?
Or is the panel only designed to notify the ADT monitoring center if it has switched to battery-operation?
Thanks!
