Nice find! Thanks for sharing.
OK, as of November 1, the FAQ has been updated to say that the cellular back up will allow notification of the ADT monitoring center even if the power is out. That’s good.
However, it looks like the battery back up may only apply to the ADT monitoring sensors, not your other SmartThings devices like lights control. Which means it has less local processing than the V2 hub.
Plus panel activities appear to apply only to the ADT monitoring portion, which also sucks.
Plus confirmation of the following:
Can I use my existing ADT sensors with the ADT Security Hub?
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At this time, existing ADT devices are not compatible with the ADT Security Hub. SmartThings ADT monitored devices, as well as supported ZigBee and Z-Wave devices will be compatible with the ADT Security Hub. For more information on ZigBee, Z-Wave and ADT monitored security devices, see “Which devices work with ADT Security Hub?” above.
So it’s better than the basic SmartThings hub, but there are still some pieces missing.
I can confirm the panel has a cell modem and battery backup, so what’s the point of having the cell modem installed if it can’t phone home in the event of wifi being out? Their documentation must be wrong here
What’s the point of the SmartThings V2 hub having a Bluetooth radio if it can’t do anything with it? ( still true two years after that model was launched 
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They made a plan and then didn’t carry through, for whatever reason.
Yeah that is pretty ridiculous when you think about it…
I don’t know if this is a cost-savings measure or a technical issue that they will address with an add-on later, but not being able to send out alerts when WiFi is out is a serious limitation.
I guess now we know why they don’t charge for the cellular data plan…because it isn’t being used at all!
Wink’s new Lookout package doesn’t have a cellular backup either, but it’s only selling for $199. And at least wink’s phone app can still talk to their hub if the Internet is down but your local Wi-Fi is still working, something that it appears that the SmartThings/ADT system cannot do.
I agree this looks like the feature was intended but then not delivered on launch day. But as we learned with the Bluetooth radio, there’s no telling when it might be turned on. 
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This is definitely disappointing as I was excited to hear about offical ADT integration since I was thinking of buliding a system with a envisalink4 to integrate into SmartThings but this new system just doesn’t seem to be anywhere close to where it needs to be for $500. The fact that it has a battery backup but kills the hub on a power outage and has no way to send out a notifications pretty much ruins any hopes I had for it.
Well I’ll have it installed and activated in some capacity within the week so I’ll do some testing and we’ll see
Yeah but that’s kind of a cop-out to offer a solution that wouldn’t really work for anybody… you would get really local notifications, in exchange for not receiving anything from any other app that tries to access the internet via your WiFi connection instead of cellular data.
Not to mention that, unless they can use your phone as some kind of proxy, the alerts are just local to the phone in the house and never to some kind of alert center. It’s better than nothing I guess, but this is the same as the siren on a panel or a smoke detector going off.
This does have it uses, which is one reason it’s annoying that SmartThings doesn’t do it. For one thing, it allows you to arm and disarm the system locally, if, for example, you get home to find that the power is off and you don’t want your local siren to go off when you open your own door. Or just to turn a battery-powered siren off if there’s a false alarm when the power is out.
It also let you use voice options on your phone as a back up for when your internet-powered Voice assistant is off-line.
So it does have value, although how important it will be varies from household to household. 
Yep! Me, too JD. Money talks, Caveat Emptor 
…and stand by for the disappointed consumer.
I mean that’s technically true, but it’s almost like an accidental “benefit” over the complete mess that is SmartThings. 
That’s like saying that your car has a really innovative and reliable towing system so it’s very easy to get it to the mechanic every time it breaks down. I mean that’s nice and all, and I’m sure it’s appreciated when you need it, but it’s kind of one of those things that you really, really wish your car didn’t need.
You would think that all of these companies that have internet access as a requirement would make provisions for an internet / power outage, but I guess they don’t consider the possibility of an outage being worth the engineering effort, even if it’s a good selling point.
I’m sure someone can do accurate math using well-researched statistics, but very roughly:
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The odds of a home burglary are quite small (I think 1/20,000 per year?).
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In most urban areas, frequency of internet outage is also very low (few times per year, usually very short). I certainly don’t worry about not having my Netflix available on Sunday evening.
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The odds of these both happening at the same time are thus miniscule, unless there is a correlation: burglar cuts power, cable or telephone line, or fire knocks out wifi.
The real-world incremental value of cellular redundancy is small for most people (except for the “peace of mind” factor). Unfortunately, the incremental price of the smarthome product (due to implementation of robust failover) likely exceeds this value, since consumers are very price sensitive.
I gotta wonder how many consumers are really attracted to this ADT product at $500 + monthly monitoring fee. Surely they would pay even 20% more for cellular failover? So the economic and business choices here are mysterious to me.
The use case I was envisioning is someone different, and one for which we have had several reports in the forums.
It’s simple. The Internet goes out but the monitoring system remains active. You come in through the door and your local battery powered siren starts sounding. Now how do you turn it off?
Many people intentionally place sirens where they will be physically difficult to get to. In my case, since I’m in a wheelchair with limited use of my hands, the siren could be sitting on the coffee table and I still couldn’t physically turn it off.
So now how do you turn it off?
With Wink lookout or any other system which has local control of the device and an accessible UI, you can turn it off with your phone. But apparently not with the new ADT/SmartThings system.
There may be a physical button on the panel that would work, I’m not sure, but of course that doesn’t work for me.
And if the power is also out then there’s a whole other set of issues.
But the issue isn’t that a burglary is appearing. The Issue is a false alarm where you want to silence the local siren.
That’s precisely my point though… cellular redundancy might be overkill for some applications, and people (obviously) learn to take uninterrupted internet access (and power) for granted, to the point that “requires internet access” is merely a footnote on the box.
However, I would argue that the percentage of people with a “legacy” home security system today that require battery backup is extremely high, if not 100%.
I would argue that the same is true for cellular backup, even if that’s a harder sell.
Yeah and like you said, that’s a specific use case that people have, and something that people have learned to live with by disconnecting things or rolling out their own battery backup or whatever.
My particular use case though is the scary one… where the power and the internet go out, intentionally or not, and the whole “security” system is basically less than a paperweight.
I guess it shouldn’t be surprising though… people have smoke detectors with no batteries, or they keep them unplugged because they keep making noises when they fry fish or whatever… my guess is that the lack of a bad experience, combined with the convenience of “no monthly payments” and initial low cost makes it OK to keep adding things into the internet requirement basket, assuming things will always work.
Right on! Cellular redundancy is a must for a “real” security system!
Footnote: we’re away from home visiting family. Woke up this morning to a call from ADT reporting a “low battery” condition at our house. Turns out, power had been off almost eight hours already! Internet down, ST down, but ADT Gear was still reporting via its cellular connection.
Looks like power is still out as I write this some seventeen hours later. Windstorm took down power lines, schools closed, etc. Thankfully, no danger of frozen pipes this time…
FWIW
“Hello Tyler!
Thank you for chatting in earlier. I have confirmed that the LTE module inside the ADT panel will continue to allow security monitoring in the event of a Wi-Fi outage. We will also be updating our support article to reflect this. Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention and please let me know if there are any further questions or concerns, I could address with you today. Thank you!
Hope you have a great day!
Vincent Ruiz - SmartThings Customer Support”
When you look at the ADT landing page on the ST website this is one of the first things listed:
“Your home security system needs a brain, so get started with an ADT Security Hub. It features a 7-inch touchscreen control panel, a built-in siren, battery and cellular data backup, and dual-encryption wireless technology.”
Hopefully this is correct and cellular backup is enabled. I think I’m about to pull the trigger on one while it’s $50 off.