The telco world is making some progress on the home automation and energy management front. On the heels of the news last week that Motorola will buy up smart home startup 4Home, this week, CEPro is reporting that AT&T has acquired Xanboo, a decade-old firm that was one of the original home automation players and enables home owners to monitor security, energy consumption, and digital media across devices. AT&T confirmed the deal with CEPro, and told them, “Xanboo’s monitoring services are a natural extension of our high-speed Internet, video and voice offerings and a good fit for our wireless services.” However, there’s no news yet on the financial terms of the deal. AT&T has been using Xanboo’s technology for years, and is listed as an investor on Xanboo’s investor page. Update: AT&T confirmed this deal with us.
Service providers, including telcos and cable operators, have discussed the potential of offering home automation for years, and in the past couple of years have added energy management into that mix. The idea is to leverage their communications networks that already provide video, voice and web service, to offer home security systems that use connected video cameras, and energy management services, which display the energy consumption of connected devices and appliances throughout the home. By offering these extra services, broadband companies are hoping to differentiate themselves and win over new customers (reducing that nasty thing called “churn“). At the same time, they’re partnering with — or in this case acquiring — startups that can tap into that market.
Verizon said this summer that it plans to offer some sort of home automation and energy management service over its fiber network before the end of the year (though, it’s getting close for them, and they said the same thing for 2009). Verizon has partnered with 4Home in the past. Cable company Comcast has backed iControl, a six-year-old company that sells a home energy management products.
AT&T is also active in the smart grid space, selling space on its wireless networks to third parties to connect smart meters and utilities. Could Xanboo play a role in AT&T’s smart grid division? Xanboo says on its web site that it is already working with utilities and sells a connected thermostat, too, so it’s clearly knee-deep in the smart grid home energy market. We’ll bring you updates when we know more.
AT&T a racheté Xanboo, une société créée il y a dix ans, qui, elle aussi, permet de piloter et surveiller l'énergie et la sécurité de son logement ainsi que les appareils vidéo, le tout à distance et sur des appareils portables. Xanboo propose aussi, par exemple, des thermostats raccordés à son réseau, pour piloter son chauffage. AT&T a expliqué qu'il s'agissait d'un complément naturel à ses services de téléphonie mobile. Le géant américain utilisait d'ailleurs la technologie de Xanboo depuis plusieurs années. Et il a fait partie des investisseurs de Xanboo.
Les acteurs des télécoms espèrent visiblement que ce type de service pourra les différencier de leurs concurrents et leur permettra de gagner de nouveaux clients. D'ailleurs, Verizon, autre opérateur de téléphonie américain, a lui aussi déclaré vouloir offrir des services de gestion de l'énergie et du smart home avant la fin de l'année. AT&T est déjà à sa façon un acteur du smart grid puisqu'il loue une partie de sa bande passante pour permettre à des tiers de connecter des compteurs intelligents et les compagnies de distribution électrique.
