Smart home solution from Nokia to help operators create new service revenues
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Finland-based Nokia has announced a new Smart Home solution that lets network operators quickly offer new services to existing residential customers seeking a digital home solution for the Internet of Things.
The solution supports an array of sensors, plugs and other connected devices essential for the delivery of home security, automation and smart metering services, providing customers with a fully integrated, simple, plug-and-play experience.
According to Nokia, mobile network operators can expect to see an additional US$10-20 average revenue per user (ARPU) a month for home security and automation services. With the number of IoT connected devices expected to grow from 1.6 billion in 2014 to between 20 and 46 billion by 2020, network operators are seeking new ways to help subscribers leverage the Internet of Things in all aspects of their lives.
Providing operators with a single box solution, Nokia’s smart home gateway lets subscribers easily monitor and control everything inside the home with a smartphone or a tablet, including temperature and motion sensors, door and window sensors, smoke detectors, light switches and security cameras.
Jonathan Collins, research director for Smart Home at ABI Research said: “The broad Smart Home market is still fairly young. As a leading IoT segment there is clear potential for rapid growth and with that new revenue opportunities for network operators. However, critical to growth will be providing interoperability between myriad devices. Increasingly operators must ensure that the residential smart home device they deploy can support multiple protocols in a single device, including Wi-Fi, ZigBee and Z-Wave.”
To help streamline and simplify installation in the home, the Nokia Smart Home solution provides network operators with three key elements. The first element is a single device that acts as an Optical Network Terminal (ONT), residential and smart home gateway. The second is a mobile application (on IOS and Android) to control the home. Finally, an end-to-end IoT management platform controlling the Smart Home ecosystem, with some predefined use cases and management of all smart devices in the home.
Available to all network operators by the end of 2016, the new smart home gateway provides a fully integrated, simple to deploy solution to other over the top (OTT) technologies and can help network operators capture a piece of the growing smart home market, which is forecast to grow 24% to $39 billion between 2015 and 2020.2
It also added to Nokia’s IoT portfolio which, over the last six months has grown to include more network infrastructure including; IoT services, specialised vertical solutions; IoT devices ; IoT Community; along with the recently announced IoT platform and gateway.
Federico Guillén, president of Fixed Networks, Nokia, commented: “With the rapid growth of IoT and increasing number of smart devices in the home, residential customers are seeking a single solution that is simple to install and easy to manage. In a very fragmented market, network operators have a unique opportunity to stand out from other OTT players and position themselves as the smart home providers of the future.
The Nokia Smart Home solution offers operators the chance to get ahead of the IoT trend and provide customers with a simple plug-and-play solution that is fully interoperable with the leading Wi-Fi technologies and standards needed to manage smart devices and applications. It will also help operators provide new smart home security and automation services that can generate additional revenue opportunities and further enhance customer loyalty.”
Providing an end-to-end solution for network operators, the Nokia Smart Home solution consists of the Nokia 7368 ISAM ONT G240WZ-A, that performs three functions. It is an optical Network Terminal (ONT), a residential gateway (along with advanced dual-band concurrent Wi-Fi and beamforming to ensure the best possible Wi-Fi coverage in the home) and a smart home hub (with Z-Wave and ZigBee support).
The solution also includes a mobile app for the customer’s smartphone or tablet to control and manage the devices. For the mobile network operator it includes an IoT applications and services platform for a Smart Home ecosystem and use case management.
The combination of Wi-Fi, Z-Wave and ZigBee is expected to enable control of 66% of all smart devices shipped in 20162. Audio and video streaming traffic will account for four-fifths of increased 2020 traffic. The majority of streaming, about 66 to 74%, will come from home-based networks driven by more content and larger, higher-resolution devices.
References
- Nokia Bell Labs Consulting Mobility Report, April 2016
- ABI Research – Home Automation Systems, December 2015
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