AT&T is launching a nationwide home security and automation service this summer, piggybacking on efforts by its ISP brethren to sell new revenue-generating broadband services. But there’s a twist. AT&T isn’t requiring subscribers to use its wireless broadband network. Instead, customers can access the AT&T Digital Life applications using any wireless carrier’s service.
The AT&T approach is similar to Verizon’s, but it’s very different from how many of the cable companies are introducing security services. It also makes me wonder what other services the telcos could start offering without requiring a bundled broadband subscription. Verizon hinted in 2011 at offering FiOS TV as an app, and now that the company is de-emphasizing its wireline business (a mistake, in my opinion), perhaps a nationwide TV service that doesn’t rely on Verizon’s network isn’t the absurd notion it once was.