Can home control services be the next wave for telcos?

Let’s start off with a stipulation: Telcos still have a long ways to go to perfect their triple/quadruple play services. IPTV is improving, but it’s still not there. And the long talked about IMS-driven integration of content across three (or more) screens isn’t yet a reality. OK – so all of these things need to be progressed. Work remains to be done.

But what comes next? Where else can telcos go in the home? How else can they drive revenue? Where can they find differentiation and a hedge against the over-the-top content that’s attacking their triple-play efforts?

Well, one area that’s being positioned to the telcos is a foray into the realm of home control. Now I know what you’re thinking … home control (and automation) is Jetsons stuff that doesn’t work, or it’s the realm of rich guys with too many toys. But hear me out because in fact home control is moving into the mainstream.

There are several things driving the move of home control out of the hands of hobbyists and the ultra-wealthy and into middle class homes. First is the equipment itself, with new technology standards like ZigBee and Z-Wave providing the basis for an inexpensive wireless home control network. These standards allow consumers or installers to quickly build a mesh control network without a lot of the install headaches of earlier systems. If ‘home control’ still equals ‘X10’ in your mind, you need to reset your thinking – a lot has changed.

Second, the growing adoption of home computer and entertainment networks, and of HDTV and home theaters in the home, has caused a big jump in the number of “things” people need to control. And when consumers see how they can get a unified and intuitive control system locally (for example, in a home theater using a Harmony or similar touchscreen remote), they start to ask themselves “why can’t I do this for everything in the house?

Finally, and perhaps most importantly moving forward, home control systems are beginning to be encouraged and even mandated by local and state governments and power utilities for energy conservation purposes. Anyone who’s lived through California’s “rolling blackouts” understands that power consumption growth and power generation growth have not been matching each other over the past few decades. In fact, the energy companies are rapidly moving forward with home control programs that if unchecked could give them a toehold in telco territory.

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