Anyone with any experience with House Alarms and Monitoring. I have been using ADT for many years which was busy gobbling up all the smaller companies. Theyw ere part of the Tyco group which has now been taken over by UTC.

My problem is the service stinks and the cost is high. I had an alarm that monitored the house and provided internal and external sirens. The system offers cellular reporting which I had to install when fibre came in . After ADT maintenance which required a new circuit board they replaced the control panel which was solution 6 and installed DSC. What they did not tell me was that the external alarm would no longer work with this panel. I only found out when testing the alarm and noted that the external alarm was not working. Have tried to communicate with ADT its like banging your head against the wall.  I pointed out I did not request a downgrade and they should fix. The finally sent out a tech who confirmed it did not work and that was because the panel did not support external alarms. No they cannot fix it as they are not allowed to go up a ladder as the alarm is too high. They could offer an external wifi alarm but it cannot be mounted high up away from tampering. Of course this would cost me. I asked he go back and they should come up with a free option. The bill for his visit arrived two days later nothing heard back from company.

Sorry for diatribe but I am now looking at alternatives. I need help with following

1. If I cancel ADT monitoring I presume I can keep the current system seeing I have paid for it minus the monitoring. Presumably the system would work well for a few years yet, without monitoring

2. I have had a look at Spark's new Morepork system which seems interesting. Has anyone tried this out and any comments about the system. It doesn't have an external alarm/light but they way it works it may not need it. It is considerably cheaper than what I am paying ADT

3. Any thoughts at all on alarms/monitoring

Thanks