Along with the connected home, the connected car as introduced here, is set to become another growth area for the automotive, electronics and telecommunications sector. Therefore, it is no surprise that Verizon has acquired Hughes Telematics, a specialist in developing connected services for the automotive industry. For a sum of $612 million, Verizon adds Hughes connected car services to its Verizon Enterprise Solutions group.
Verizon has solidified its commitment in the home automation and monitoring market by joining the Z-Wave Alliance. They will now play a bigger role in promoting the Z-Wave technology and have a direct say in its direction. Verizon has also indicated their interest in making their set-top box solution wireless; therefore, joining the Z-Wave Alliance is one step in that direction.
Verizon is to introduce a new range of Home Media Servers to work with its set-top boxes. The new Verizon Media Servers will be more energy efficient and will only need a scale down version Verizon set-top box in each room connected to your television. Developed in partnership with Motorola; Verizon said they will only need to deploy a smaller set-top box to each room, one that is small enough to connected to the back of your television.
AT&T has decided to get in on the home energy management action by indicating that they will be launching their own home energy management platform in the near future. Jeffery Dygert, the company’s Executive Director of Public Policy broke the news during a panel discussion on the Broadband Breakfast Club; moderated by GigaoM reporter Katie Fehrenbacher. Jeffery said they want to offer the solution so that its customers can get more information about the energy they use within the home.
Like Verizon and Rogers Cable, Swisscom is planning to offer a home automation and monitoring service to its Swiss customers. They have teamed up with iControl Networks, the provider of the OpenHome platform to develop the “Smart Living” solution for the Swiss and European markets. Both companies said through the Smart Living platform customers will be to stay connected with their home when away and be able to control home electrical appliances.
Launching and driving mass adoption of Home Security and Monitoring, Energy Management and Home Control will be high up the agenda at the exclusive industry leaders summit, Connected Home Americas 2011, taking place October 18-19th at the Marriott Marquis Atlanta hotel. Also planned are in-depth discussions into the future of entertainment in the home, with topics such as multiscreen video, interactive and social TV, and TV Everywhere expected to be under the microscope.
Verizon Wireless and Trilliant, a global Smart Grid communications leader in delivering solutions that enhance energy efficiency, utility operations and renewable resource integration, today announced that Trilliant's next-generation CellReader, the leading cellular wireless Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solution for Commercial and Industrial (C&I) Utility metering, has been certified as compatible with the Verizon Wireless network. CellReader products operating on the Verizon Wireless network complement Trilliant's SecureMesh smart grid networks and UnitySuite™ head-end softw
Almost nine months after announcing plans to launch its own home automation solution, Rogers of Canada has finally announced the release of Smart Home Automation, a managed home solution. According to Rogers the new solution brings home monitoring and automation to Canada’s home owners finger tip whether they are home or away. The move is part of Rogers’ strategy to move into new markets and create new revenue streams.
Visitors to this week’s Connected Home Global Summit in London were given an overview of the soon to be launch ‘Verizon Home Monitoring and Control Service’, for its U.S. customers. The solution was developed in conjuction with 4Home and was first debuted at CES 2011. The idea behind the services is to get more of the devices in our homes connected and using power of the cloud we will have access to these devices from anywhere and at any time.
On May 24 the connected home global summit returns to London. This year’s summit like last year will feature a host of industry key players from all area of the connected home sector. There will be presenters from BT, TiVo, Whirlpool, Google and many more; they will be looking at the 'technology choices and business models that will monetise the connected home'. Service providers and operators should attend to gain insight into how this growing market sector can be adopted to create new revenue streams. Users will learn how the devices and media services they buy are changing.