AT&T Home Security Review

This Old House Rating: 8.8

AT&T, a veteran cell phone and internet provider, offers its Digital Life home security service to customers and non-customers, alike. Digital Life offers one security package called Smart Security, which provides customers with essential security features like contact and motion sensors.

Along with offering security equipment and professional installation, AT&T adds professional monthly monitoring to its services at a monthly cost. Keep reading to learn more about the features, devices, and pricing of a Smart Security package from AT&T and determine if this is the best home security company for you.

Pros and Cons of AT&T Home Security

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of AT&T below:

Pros & Cons

Smart Security Package From Digital Life

AT&T Digital Life only offers customers a Smart Security package. Although only one security option is available, Digital Life allows customers to add additional devices to any plan to make it more comprehensive.

Smart Security

The Smart Security package comes with essential home security equipment like motion detectors and contact sensors and 24/7 professional monitoring.

Here’s what’s included in the Smart Security package:

• Indoor siren
• Keypad
• Motion sensor
• Recessed contact sensors (2)
• Surface contact sensors (4)

Types of AT&T Security Equipment

Digital Life through AT&T provides customers with a standard set of security devices to start their home security system. If you have a larger home or want a more comprehensive system, you’ll need to purchase additional devices sold by AT&T. Here’s a look at the security equipment offered by Digital Life.

Contact Sensor

The contact sensors provided by Digital Life are recessed and easily installed in door jambs or window frames. These discrete sensors trigger the alarm if an equipped door or window is opened.

Window Sensor

These surface contact sensors are installed directly onto doors, windows, or other points of entry. Once installed, the compact sensor signals the alarm when a door or window is opened.

Active Doorbell

The Active Doorbell from Digital Life doesn’t record video on its own. Instead, the doorbell sends an alert when rang or triggers a Digital Life camera to start recording.

Glass Break Sensor

The glass break sensor detects the sound of breaking glass, alerting your system of a possible break-in.

Carbon Monoxide Sensor

The carbon monoxide sensor links directly to your Digital Life system, alerting you and the monitoring center of dangerous air quality within the home.

Read More: How to Choose a Carbon Monoxide Detector

Keypad

The keypad is how you control your system inside the home. The keypad lets you arm and disarm your system and receive system alerts.

Motion Sensor

The motion sensor detects movement in your house and alerts the system and monitoring center of a potential break-in. If you own pets, you can change the sensitivity of the motion detector to ignore pets up to 35 pounds.

Indoor Siren

This siren sounds the alarm during a potential burglary, alerting you and your neighbors while warding off any intruders.

Conversion Kit

Since AT&T Home Security devices aren’t Zigbee or Z-wave compatible, a conversion kit is required to connect your existing door and window sensors. You must contact a Digital Life technician to see if a conversion kit will work for your current devices.

Cost of AT&T Home Security

A Smart Security plan from Digital Life costs $549.99 for the initial equipment and then requires $39.99 per month for your system to be professionally monitored.

If you wish to add more devices to your system, you’ll pay an upfront fee for the equipment. Here’s a look at the cost of additional devices from AT&T.

Cost

How Does AT&T Work?

After you purchase your Digital Life security system, you’ll agree to a two-year contract with AT&T where you’ll pay a monthly fee of $39.99 for professional monitoring. After the two years, you can choose to continue paying a monthly fee for monitoring through Digital Life.

With Digital Life, you can control your system through the Digital Life App, available for iOS, Android, and Windows. If you choose, the system can also be controlled via the internet or your keypad. Additionally, your Digital Life system incorporates smart home automation features, allowing you to control your system through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

AT&T Customer Service

Digital Life customer service is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is available through their customer support hotline. They also offer online chat through the Digital Life website during select hours.

Your Digital Life system comes with a Complete Protection Period, which covers defective AT&T equipment for as long as you subscribe to their monitoring service. This is a limited warranty and doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions or equipment that’s been tampered with or improperly installed.

AT&T offers returns within the first 14 days of installation. The return entitles you to a refund of the equipment and service minus any pre-scheduled appointment, activation fee, or restocking fee. AT&T won’t remove all installed equipment, so you may be responsible for removing and returning any necessary devices. If you cancel your service after 14 days of its installation, you’ll be subject to cancellation fees of $720 minus $30 for each full month you receive service.

AT&T Home Security Reviews

AT&T is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and holds an A- rating. This rating comes from BBB’s understanding of how the company interacts with customers and handles complaints. Since AT&T offers cell phone and internet services, not all customer reviews are related to their home security offerings.

Here’s a sample of BBB customer reviews regarding AT&T services:

“Amazing company. The customer service people are always helpful and very nice. Also when you call, you do not have to wait on hold for a long period of time like other companies.” — Brett T.

“Terrible customer service. In reality not [interested] in your problems and not helping. Waiting time [is] terrible—20–45 min. After [being] a customer of AT&T more [than] 10 years, we should change wireless [providers] to another company. — Na S.

Our Conclusion

We give Digital Life Home Security an 8.8/10. Backed by AT&T, Digital Life offers competitive warranty coverage and, unlike other companies, doesn’t charge for equipment installation. Although the security service does a few things right, its services are more expensive than many DIY home security providers. Digital Life’s home security package only offers nine devices, so if you’re looking for a comprehensive system you’ll need to purchase additional equipment which may increase costs.

If you’re not sure whether AT&T Home Security is right for you, take a look at other top-rated security companies in the industry like Abode, Vivint, and ADT.

Top-Rated Alternatives to AT&T Home Security

Frequently Asked Questions

Our Rating Methodology

We back up our home security recommendations with a detailed rating methodology that we use to objectively score each provider. Our research includes analyzing product specifications, reviewing service and plan information, speaking with customer service representatives, and analyzing customer reviews. We then score the provider against our review standards for system options, special features, installation options, connectivity and smart-home automation features, pricing, contract terms, warranty, usability, availability of a trial period, and trustworthiness to arrive at a final score out of 100.

To share feedback or ask a question about this article, send a note to our Reviews Team at reviews@thisoldhousereviews.com.