Verizon May Launch Z-Wave Remote Monitoring and Control System from 4Home

Verizon may be rolling out a home monitoring and control system based on technology from 4Home.

CE Pro discovered a document on an FCC Web site that describes the Verizon Home Monitoring Gateway and Home Monitor Service, referring to the service as "4Home."

Neither Verizon nor 4Home would comment on the system described in the FCC document.

The hub of the Verizon system is a Westell-branded gateway device called Control Point, which features Internet connectivity and automation capabilities via on-board Z-Wave wireless technology. Two USB ports are "reserved for your future USB devices," according to the document. "The USB ports can be used for external, local storage such as memory sticks."

Z-Wave devices such as motion sensors, lights, thermostats, garage-door openers, door locks and other compatible products can be monitored and controlled through the system.

Certain IP-based surveillance cameras also can be integrated.

Users can access these devices through any Web browser, or directly from their Verizon mobile phones. They simply click on the "4Home" button on the phone to check in on the home, change the temperature, unlock the doors and perform other home automation feats.

Self Configuration

According to the document, users can customize their home page by simply adding and sizing widgets available through the configuration tool.

For example, a "Camera" widget would display live feeds from the home's surveillance cameras, a "Scenes" widget would provide easy access to modes such as "Home," "Away" or "Movie Time." A "Rooms" widget would let you peer into any room of the house at the press of a button.

Just as they can customize their own home pages, users can configure alerts through a seemingly easy-to-use application.

For instance, users can program the system to take a 15-second video when the living room motion sensor is tripped, and then send that video to their cell phones.

Users can also put their home automation functions on a schedule.

Can Verizon Pull it Off?

Let's just say, hypothetically, that Verizon does indeed plan to launch the service described in the online document.

How would they fare?

If they succeed, they will be the first. Service providers have long toyed with remote home monitoring and control, but none has really pulled it off.

Nokia demonstrated late last year the Nokia Home Control Center, a Z-Wave-enabled solution not unlike Verizon's. The service (not based on 4Home) currently is only being offered in Europe.

4Home's platform is a good one -- Digeo, for example, is using it in its Moxi digital video recorders – but the technology has been around for quite some time.

In 2007, AT&T began offering AT&T Remote Monitor, a service similar to Verizon's (apparent) offering based on technology from Xanboo. Motorola also offered a Xanboo-based solution called HomeSight.

Neither of those really took off.

iControl, another provider of remote monitoring and control, offers a platform as rich as 4Home's but has struggled for years to get any takers among utilities and other service providers.

Finally, ADT Security bit and the two companies will roll out the iControl solution en masse later this year.

Cisco (with Linksys) has talked non-stop about the mass market for its (never-released?) Z-Wave automation gateway and remote services.

In 2006, Malachy Moynihan of Linksys discussed his company's strategic investment in Zensys, the company (now owned by Sigma) responsible for Z-Wave technology.

“When I drive away from home, I’m halfway to my destination and I’m wondering if I closed the garage doors,” says Moynihan, adding that a Z-Wave enabled Internet bridge would make it simple for him to check on the garage, and close the door if necessary. ...

Moynihan says that Linksys’ first Z-Wave-enabled devices most likely will be sold through retailers that sell home-improvement products like (Z-Wave-enabled) light switches and garage-door openers, rather than mass-market consumer-electronics. Think Home Depot more so than Best Buy, he suggests.

Moynihan also says there is a ready audience among Linksys’ current base of service-provider customers. Just as Linksys has a relationship with VoIP provider Vonage, it is not unrealistic to expect Linksys to team up with telcos and cable companies on a Z-Wave-enabled Internet offering.

Has anything actually materialized from Linksys?

And what ever became of Actiontec's zControl gateway (also using 4Home)?

The list of wanna-bes goes on and on and on.

For its part, Verizon has been working on Internet appliances since at least 2006, when the communications company launched the Verizon One, unit that combined telecom, Internet, photos and an assortment of widgets on a single touchscreen devices, with promises of automation to come.

In 2007, Verizon launched the second version of the product (you can even order pizza through it!), indicating that eventually there would be developer kits for third-party applications like automation.

The theory goes: Give users these great applications and they will switch to your service, stay with your service, and/or consume more minutes with your service.

To be sure, remote monitoring and control is a handy application and a big selling point for those who offer professional home integration services. (Try it out yourself with the HomeLogic iPhone app.)

But such services have never made it at retail.

Will a Verizon initiative fare any better?

The instruction manual on the FCC site was 36 pages long.