Smart Homes Draw New Interest From Cable Operators, Heavy Reading Finds

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Cable operators are ready to take another run at offering a full suite of smart-home services to increase customer spending, but they face a number of challenges to turn smart-home services into a meaningful business, according to the latest report from Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider (www.heavyreading.com/cable), a subscription research service from Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com).

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Cable Gears Up for Another Smart-Home Run assesses cable's prospects for smart-home services and the technologies that support whole-home experiences and automation. The report profiles and analyzes smart-home products from nine leading suppliers, including those that support whole-home networking through hybrid gateways and related products, as well as cable's go-to provider of home automation services, iControl.

For a list of companies covered in this report, http://img.lightreading.com/cii/pdf/cii0712_companies.pdf

"The concepts surrounding the connected home are being renewed and refined," notes Craig Leddy, research analyst with Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider and author of the report. "Cable operators, as well as their service provider competitors, are brushing up the home network concepts and making them new again, with the help of recent technology innovations and fresh strategies."

Smart-home services represent an important new way for cable to expand its broadband product lines, Leddy says. "The recent introduction of whole-home gateways, cloud-based IPGs and apps, and smart-home services represents cable's early moves to take advantage of its increasing broadband capabilities," he says. "Together, these whole-home services provide a better user experience for cable customers, which in turn can help the industry to retain customers and create new revenue streams."

But cable operators face a number of technology and market challenges in the smart-home sector, Leddy cautions. "Cable customers will need to be educated about smart-home services, they need to be convinced that cable operators can be their trusted provider and they need to be swayed to add significant expense to their cable bundles," he says.

Key findings of Cable Gears Up for Another Smart-Home Run include the following:

• Cable is taking advantage of increasing broadband capabilities by offering whole-home experiences and smart-home services.
• MSOs have begun widely deploying home security and automation services such as home utility management.
• Cable is challenged to support the new home services operationally and market them successfully.
• Telcos, security services and others will compete with cable by offering smart-home products, amid unclear consumer demand.
• MSOs must educate consumers about smart-home services and price them effectively to achieve significant penetration.

Cable Gears Up for Another Smart-Home Run is available as part of an annual subscription (six issues) to Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider, priced at $1,595. Individual reports are available for $900.

To subscribe, or for more information about Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider, please visit: www.heavyreading.com/cable. For more information about other Heavy Reading Insider research services, please visit: www.heavyreading.com/research.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact:

David Williams
Global Director of Sales, Research
Heavy Reading
858-829-8612
dave.williams@heavyreading.com

Press/analyst contact:
Jennifer Baker
Marketing Director, Light Reading Communications Network
617-871-1910
jbaker@lightreading.com

About Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com)
Heavy Reading is an independent research organization offering deep analysis of emerging telecom trends to network operators, technology suppliers, and investors. Its product portfolio includes in-depth reports that address critical next-generation technology and service issues, market trackers that focus on the telecom industry's most critical technology sectors, exclusive worldwide surveys of network operator decision-makers that identify future purchasing and deployment plans, and a rich array of custom and consulting services that give clients the market intelligence needed to compete successfully in the global telecom industry. As a telecom research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com), Heavy Reading contributes to the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.

About Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com)
The Light Reading Communications Network combines the most trusted telecom research brands with award-winning online communities and a rich events portfolio to deliver the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.   With the power of this platform, leaders who build, deploy, finance, and regulate next-generation telecom networks are able to make more informed decisions on emerging market and service opportunities.  Light Reading Communications Network is a division of UBM TechWeb (www.ubmtechweb.com), the global leader in technology media and business information. 

SOURCE Heavy Reading