Can home control services be the next wave for telcos?

Of course this software and hardware doesn’t have to come from the telco – services on top of this are what will provide the stickiness and the true value to the consumer.

At this month’s International CES, I saw two platforms that provide a good example here. First was from Control4, a company that has built itself into perhaps the dominant player in the mass market “custom installed” home control and automation space. Control4’s centralized controllers and touchscreens are significantly cheaper than their traditional competitors, such as Crestron. More importantly, through channels such as Best Buy, they are reaching the mainstream. While the initial install still requires a pricey custom installer, ongoing maintenance and monitoring of the system is done across the network, by the company’s data center in Minneapolis. This opens up a world of subscription-based services opportunity going forward since they already have the hardest elements in place – distribution and communication. Expect Control4 to come even further down market with entry level products as low as $300 this year.

The other platform – more of a pure telco play – was from 4HomeMedia, a startup in this space by founders who’ve been involved in other telco players such as 2Wire. 4HomeMedia’s platform is expressly designed to live on an RG or a set top box, as well as in a dedicated home control device, and provides both an interface into all of the devices in a home and also an extensive network backend that provides remote management and diagnostics, billing and OSS and other integration into the telco networks. Essentially, this is plug-and-play home control for the carriers.

Obviously there is still a business case for such services to be built-out, and carriers will need to overcome a lot of existing problems before they take this next step, but forward-thinking carriers should have this on their radar if they want to stay a step ahead of the game.

Briere is CEO of TeleChoice, Inc., a telecommunications strategy firm that designs new products for telcos, and is co-author of many of Wiley’s …For Dummies Digital Home books, including Smart Homes for Dummies and Wireless Home Networking for Dummies. He can be reached at dbriere@telechoice.com.