For a long time supporters of Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH), me included, have been shouting that service providers need to bite the bullet and invest in FTTH. Seeing the news coming out of this year’s Broadband World Forum, there is still life left in the good old copper. This week, Huawei announced that they are working with BT, the UK’s leading broadband supplier to trial the use of G.fast broadband solution for the UK.
In the next six years the global home automation market is expected to worth over US$16 Billion, this is according to a report from Transparency Market Research. Competition is growing between broadband service providers, telcos and utilities where different parties are offering packaged/bundled services. North America is expected to remain the most valued market, with safety and security as the preferred product followed by energy management.
Accenture and Siemens have decided to create a one-stop shop for utilities and the smart grid sector. Both companies are joining forces to form the Omnetric Group, a company providing solutions and services around data management and system integration. Siemens will combine its smart grid products and solutions with Accenture’s management and technology consulting, systems integration and managed-services capabilities.
GE’s latest Smart Metering Operations Suite (SMOS) has achieved the Oracle Exadata Optimized status through the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) programme. The application was tested on Oracle’s high performance Exadata Database Machines, which offer the latest in data processing and server technology. The OPN has proven that SMOS has been tested and tuned to deliver speed, scalability and reliability in some of the most demanding environment.
Perceptive Automation, the creator of Mac-based home automation solution Indigo has announced that they are partnering with FortrezZ a manufacture of security and wireless automation products. The strategic agreement will allow support for FortrezZ products in Indigo. The partnership will allow seamless integration of FortrezZ devices into automated homes using Perceptive Indigo.
Paradox and NEC Europe further tighten their partnership by signing a reseller agreement for Paradox Engineering’s PE.AMI Smart City solution. To support utilities upgrading their grid infrastructure NEC will offer the PE.AMI along with NEC’s Information and Communication technologies and energy solutions. As part of the agreement both companies will work together on joint promotion activities, trade shows, end user and customers’ seminars.
Danish energy management company NorthQ today launches the world’s first battery-powered Wi-Fi Power & Gas Reader. According to NorthQ, Wi-Fi Power & Gas Reader is easily installed on existing home’s mechanical and electronic power or gas meters. It allows you to get some of the benefits of having a smart meter, such as allowing data collected to be transferred and viewed on the NorthQ Portal every 15 minutes.
Amazon has been selling home automation products for a long time now but they have now officially launched their own home automation shop.
AT&T is forging ahead to become the go to connectivity provider for the new generation of smart solutions. The company today opened another AT&T Foundry innovation center, this time in Atlanta. According to AT&T this one is a launching pad for innovations in their Digital Life services, connected car and home entertainment platforms.
Connected home solutions companies Paragon Technology, S3 Aurant, Cyber Sound, DSI Entertainment, Studio AV and Engineered Environments have are coming under one umbrella – VIA International. The companies, which are based across the Western United States (Colorado, Utah, Northern and Southern California, Arizona, and Montana), are creating what they called digital concierge services for the home.