Recent Blogs

The home automation market is big business, growing over 30% a year and expected to be worth $9.5 (£6) billion worldwide in 2015, according to Berg Insight. In 2012 it remains an immature and fragmented market but one that is attracting the attention of major new suppliers such as multinational telecommunications enterprises.

The Connected Home, with a networked energy management system, is achievable now. The UK government has mandated dual gas and electric smart meters for every home and business by 2020. In the near future homes will communicate through their power meter with the Smart Grid, allowing both utility companies and consumers to manage power usage.  But greater convergence and more focus on end user engagement is needed before the Connected Home is realised, paticularly where utility companies are concerned.

Verizon, the American telecommunications giant, recently launched its range of Connected Home devices and services to give consumers a comprehensive Smart Home ecosystem. The new system offers a broad range of Connected Home devices from smart door locks to energy monitoring equipment, all manageable remotely from the web or a smartphone app.

For a long time now, just about everyone has been talking about interconnecting people and objects; a world where you’re never alone - always connected to something or someone. The Internet of Things, as it currently stands, is about connecting you to your surroundings and your surroundings to the wider world.

Our free consultative workshops for telecom’s and utility companies aim to help make sense of the who, what, how and why of the Connected Home.

In the UK the government is undertaking one of the largest rollouts of smart meters, installing over 50 million in UK homes and businesses by 2020.  This enormous undertaking is expected to cost in the region of £11 billion and as various trials have taken place across the country press coverage has snowballed, typically discussing the pros and cons of the project and whether there are savings to be made by the consumer...

The growth of the mobile market over the last few years has been nothing short of staggering.  Smartphones and tablets have revolutionised the way people browse the internet, purchase products, network and interact with brands.  In September 2009, just 0.02% of all UK web traffic originated from a mobile device, but compare this to January 2011 and the figure is up to 8.09% which represents a growth of over 4000%...

Read an article by Nabeel Mardi which discusses how Telco's can differentiate themselves from the competition by exploring niche opportunities.

We are witnessing the next major evolution of the Internet with a switch in focus from delivering content to delivering capability.  We are moving to a networked world where every device (light switch/plug socket/appliance) will be IP addressable and the web will be used to connect and integrate them...

The arrival of more intelligent home gateways, the addition of WiFi, DECT and femtocell connectivity plus storage and the expansion of services to include home monitoring and security, appliance control and energy management as well as a raft of other new domestic applications provides both a threat and an opportunity to service providers...