Can AT&T make phoning fun again?

Rather than move away from the lackluster landline all together, AT&T is banking on mirroring the mobile and PC experience to make it more relevant. The operator today launched HomeManager, a landline phone combining Internet access and popular wireless features like visual voicemail. While the ultimate goal is to restore the relevancy of the landline, not everyone is convinced consumers will find it compelling – regardless of its applications.
“Fixed telephone is not sexy,” said Yankee Group analyst Steve Hilton.

Anytime you ask people why they get thing, it’s not because it’s not sexy. It is because it works and it communicates, and that is it. [HomeManager] is not going to help. It’s $300 plus a two-year contract. People at home are investing in laptops that have a whole heck of a lot more functionality then a seven-inch screen you’ll get from AT&T. I respect their desire to try to make phoning fun, but its time to wake up and smell the coffee.”

Hilton is not unique in his sentiments towards the landline, which has been losing subscribers to wireless for some time now. Even AT&T had realized this by heavily investing in wireless and making moves to appeal to the customers who have already moved on. Like main competitor Verizon, AT&T does offer a double play of wireless and standalone DSL, to which it attributes its high first quarter broadband growth.

Yet with today’s announcement, AT&T is essentially hoping to blend elements of its three-screen strategy into the landline to ease customers into convergence – for those who aren’t ready to give up the comfort of a landline, but want the features of wireless and broadband. Home phone calls are routed over the traditional wireline or voice-over IP (VoIP) connection using the touch screen or cordless handset, and a broadband-enabled base station sends information directly to the cordless, seven-inch touch screen. Other features include access to Internet content like weather reports, e-mail, local news and sports, Yellowpages.com, email and address book synching through AT&T’s Mobile Backup.