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AT&T Launches 4th Screen with Home Manager
22 Sep, 2008
AT&T announced the launch of Home Manager, “an innovative home phone that combines access to Internet content and popular wireless phone applications with traditional home phone service.” Home Manager looks like a “fourth screen” strategy, where the home phone "screen" joins the Internet/computer, cell phone, and television screens as a purveyor of content. Home Manager uses a portable broadband connected seven-inch color touch screen for access to a variety of features and content, including visual voicemail, weather reports, e-mail access, local news, a portable speakerphone and more. Features include:
- Address Book Synchronizing - synchs address books across the touch screen and home handset with AT&T mobile phone contacts
- Web Based Information Listings - access to weather, e-mail, stock profiles, sports, news, photos, movie listings, recipes and more
- AT&T Yellow Pages - free, unlimited access to White Pages and Yellow Pages online directories, which can also be uploaded to cell phones and email
- Visual Voice Mail - see and listen to messages via a single wireline-wireless mailbox on both the touch screen and cordless handset, which is compatible with AT&T U-verse Voice and AT&T Unified Messaging
- Digital Picture Frame – displays digital photos on the frame as a slide show or screen saver
The new application is similar to efforts put forth by Embarq, and their eGo product. Both are designed to add value to wireline phone service, and hopefully give customers reasons to keep their telco wireline service, rather than forgoing it entirely for wireless only, or churning over to cable and VoIP competitive offerings. "We're building on the reliability of our wireline platform and advancing it with touch screens, mobile phone applications, visual voicemail and more. A phone today is not just for talking — it's about having the content and the information that's important to you right at your fingertips,” said Brian Shay, senior vice president, Converged Services for AT&T in a company statement. The application will sell for $299, and includes the portable touchscreen, one integrated cordless handset and one base station. It’s currently available in about nine markets. 3screens.net, a blog focused on AT&T services, offers an interesting independent review of Home Manager - well worth a read. The service seems quite interesting and will peak the interest of some, but the $299 threshold seems quite high, especially in these uncertain economic times. This will be an interesting one to watch.
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googleEmbarq Converges Broadband with Home Phone Service
07 Apr, 2008
Embarq announced the launch of eGo, which attempts to bridge the value of broadband service with the ubiquity of home telephone service. It's a continuation of a broad Embarq strategy to incrementally add value to traditional home telephone service, making it less vulnerable to being marginalized and replaced with wireless and/or VoIP alternatives. eGo phone handsets will sell online for $129.95 and in Embarq retail stores for $99.95. First reported by Light Reading, the new service provides access to data delivered via a broadband connection directly to a cordless home phone. Initially the service will provide visual voicemail, weather, yellow page directories, movie information, sports scores, and news headlines. The cordless phone has a "fourth screen" to display the information. Embarq hopes that customers will come to see eGo service as a resource to get information quickly, rather than retrieving that information from a laptop, TV, or home computer. Embarq also hopes those customers will then begin to see additional value for home phone service, and consequently be less likely to drop it for wireless only or VoIP service from a competitor. Verizon is looking at a similar strategy with their Verizon Hub service.
Embarq is seen as quite innovative in its pursuit of creating additional value for its core landline service. They are quite aggressive with applications like fixed mobile convergence and unified messaging, both of which make a landline more valuable. eGo is an extension of this strategy and aims to make Embarq landline services more appealing, and ultimately, more competitive.
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Should Telephone Service be Free?
12 Oct, 2008
Comcast announced a new promotion last week that offers 12 months of free basic cable service for new customers who also sign up for an additional service. Customers who don’t want an additional service can get Comcast’s basic service of about 20 -30 channels for $10/month. The promotion is tied to the digital TV transition of February 2009 and entices potential customers to avoid the transition “hassle” by getting “free” cable service. “The simple fact is that basic cable is the easiest path through the digital transition and now consumers can get it for free,” said Derek Harrar, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Video Services for Comcast in a company statement. This move is similar to strategies pursued by other video service providers, who are hoping to leverage the digital TV transition for new subscriber additions.
But is this strategy a leading indicator for the future? Should basic core services like basic cable and basic telephone service be offered for free, used as a “carrot” to entice customers to buy “more important” services like broadband? Maybe a very basic phone service, with no LD, access to landline 911, and maybe outgoing service only (to avoid telemarketers) should be a free component of a bundled offering. Such a wireline service may appeal to a customer who previously cut the cord for wireless only, but also needs broadband. There is a growing portion of the population who find the value of traditional wireline phone service elsewhere – either through wireless or broadband/IP services. But, if they could get the security of landline 911, and an extra dial tone in their home as a free value add for subscribing to broadband (or video from a telco’s perspective), maybe a telco’s bundled offering may look more attractive than a comparable cable offering. I realize this idea is not appealing to the hundreds of ILECs who are a part of the current access/settlement system (in fact, it couldn’t work in the context of today’s regulatory structure), but I wonder whether it’s inevitable. In this possible future scenario, the current settlement system adapts to broadband as the underlying service, as opposed to voice.
This scenario cuts both ways. From a cable company’s perspective, a growing portion of the population is turning to the Internet as a source for their video content, and no longer see value in paying for a broad package of video as a part of a traditional subscription pay-TV service. But, if they could receive basic TV (which includes local broadcast affiliates) as a free value add for buying broadband, maybe the cable bundle is more attractive. In a true IP/broadband world, very basic phone and video service is relatively easy to deliver, and has little impact on bandwidth and network performance. Maybe the digital transition is opening the door to a future where free basic services are a regular component of a bundled offering. Thoughts?