CES: Verizon taps 4Home for connected home over LTE

LAS VEGAS – Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) and home control services provider 4Home teamed up at the Consumer Electronics Show this week to demo the first 4G-powered home control services in the US. Developed in preparation for VZW’s 2010 long-term evolution (LTE) network launches, the services span home security and monitoring, home health and media management and energy management.

4Home chief marketing officer Nate Williams said that the partnership sprung from VZW’s LTE Innovation Center, a consortium of companies looking to showcase the power of LTE as a way to validate the offer that will go to consumers when LTE comes online. VZW has promised to roll out LTE in 25 to 30 markets in 2010.

The advantage of running connected home software over LTE stems from the range that 4G can facilitate, Williams added. LTE radios can support cameras outside the home and, coupled with 4Home’s ControlPoint software installed in the home network, can achieve whole-home coverage. As a high-bandwidth, wide connectivity network, VZW could enable the entire bundle of energy management, security, media management and eventually health services enabled over LTE as well as extend these services to areas previously unreached by broadband.

With VZW as the service provider of 4Home’s white-labeled software, which it also sells to utilities and retail outlets, consumers would also be able to monitor their home from the PC or mobile phone. For VZW, it’s a chance to realize new revenue-generating opportunities as the enabler of the connected home. Traditional voice, video and data providers like VZW were pulling in around $200 per subscriber per month as recently as three years ago, Williams said, but now they routinely collect under $99 per month. Connected home services, such as security and energy management, offer the opportunity to add incremental revenues to their bundle.

Another connected home provider, Intamac Systems, announced a partnership this week with networking provider D-Link to launch two home monitoring kits at CES -- one designed around home monitoring and the other around energy management. The company worked with Alcatel-Lucent to demo the potential of LTE in a concept vehicle but is focusing on traditional broadband routers for its in-home deployments of home security, energy management and telehealth services.

The self-installed kits can also be integrated with third-party Zigbee or ZWave devices and monitored through a personalized Web portal. According to the company, consumers can add up to 20 additional sensors, all of which report wirelessly to the control unit. These could include infrared motion detectors, door/window contacts, keypad, personalized key fobs and fire, carbon monoxide and water leak detectors. The control unit reports information direct to the Web portal with alerts relayed through SMS, email or voice calls.

With the home energy monitoring starter kit, consumers can measure and control their energy consumption through detailed usage reports on their Web portal and program devices to power down when the home is empty, reducing carbon emissions and utility bills. Intamac CEO Kevin Meagher said the company’s goal is to help consumers actually change their behavior by presenting the data and giving them the tools they need to do practical things with their consumption.

“Our unique element is that we use our platform to support devices that can be wrapped, packed and put on the shelves in retail at very low price points,” Meagher said. “Most of our customers are telcos offering these new services, bundled with broadband and integrated with their home gateways.”