Broadband carriers have been eyeing home security services as a potential product for some time now. Many have taken the leap and offer some form of home security/monitoring. After all, revenue diversification is the name of the game these days. Thanks to broadband and the smart home, this service offering is gaining momentum and may be a new battlefront in the broadband competitive landscape.
Over at Light Reading, Jeff Baumgartner points our attention to Comcast’s latest efforts with a home security product that they are debuting in Houston. Xfinity Home Security offers a security suite (which is even available through the Apple iTunes store) with two tiers, Preferred and Basic.
In addition to home security basics, the service offers features like the ability to control home heating and cooling systems, as well as lighting. There’s also remote monitoring and control functions through broadband and mobile connections. Customers can hook up security cameras and other components for home monitoring and control.
This product is strikingly similar to a product suite that Verizon revealed at our Digital Home Summit. In addition to home security features, Verizon’s connected home strategy will integrate home entertainment and other applications into “… a unified and converged product accessible across the three screens (four if you count tablet computers as a screen).” Verizon plans to launch these services to their own customer base in the first quarter of 2011, and will eventually offer a bring-your-own-broadband version, available to any home, Verizon customer or not, with the proper broadband connectivity.
Both strategies highlight an aggressive push to leverage broadband for more than just connectivity. Indeed, broadband carriers need to look for additional revenue opportunities that the broadband pipe into the home can enable. Home security and monitoring and the connected home by extension are certainly great examples. The competitive landscape for both is about to heat up.
