ABOX42 targets operators with simple smart home bundle

Set-top provider ABOX42 used its presence at last week’s NAB Show to highlight a new range of smart home solutions that it believes will enable operators to market relatively simple bundles to subscribers for a modest fee.

The ABOX42 dotIO operator smart home solution takes the form of a white-label managed service including gateways, sensors with various use cases, a big data cloud service and mobile applications.

Speaking to DTVE in Las Vegas, ABOX42 CEO Matthias Greve said that the company had discussed plans to develop additional revenue streams with operators.

“It’s a turnkey solution where the operator can offer subscription smart home services,” said Greve. “Some what to combine a set-top box and gateway, others want a separate gateway.”

Greve said that operators “do not want complex systems” with support for diverse retail products.

“We deliver the package – operators prefer end-to-end solutions,” he said, adding that operators found the smart home market challenging because of the complexity of integrating retail products and competition from other players in the market.

What ABOX42 offers is a complete system including sensors, a camera and motion and smoke detectors that can support applications such as monitoring children or elderly parents with assisted living requirements.

“You can create over time different use cases that can be sold as separate subscriptions,” he said.

He said that operators could subsidise the equipment and make money from an ongoing subscription. Starter packs could be priced at €49 with subscriptions from €10 a month, he said, compared with retail prices in the range of €400-500 for the same equipment.

Greve said the ABOX42 platform was “100% secure” and that the company had “solved all the security and privacy issues” associated with this type of deployment, adding that its expertise in pay TV was crucial here. “For the set-top to be secure is always required for pay TV. WiFi routers were never built with [high level] security, but for the smart home you need that,” he said.