Frontier (NYSE: FTR) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), which both serve the Rochester, N.Y. region, have separately made moves to offer home security services to their respective subscribers.
Through a resale agreement with ADT Security Services, Frontier began offering home security services beginning in its Rochester serving territory earlier this month.
On a more aggressive scale, Time Warner Cable offers its IntelligentHome home security and home management system not only in Rochester, but also in its Southern California and Charlotte, N.C. regions. Over the next few months, the two service providers said they plan to extend the home services into other markets.
While telcos and cable operators have had an interest in providing some form of home security since the 1980s, Bob McVeigh, chairman of the industry affairs committee for the Electronic Security Association trade group, believes that the moves by Frontier and Time Warner Cable "look to be the first successful foray into it," adding that the "technology has made it a lot more attractive for them."
Both providers offer a similar service that enables customers to remotely monitor their homes by viewing a security camera video or turning off lights or turning the thermostat up on a cold day.
Of course, Frontier and TWC aren't alone in their home automation desires. Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) also began offering its much-talked about home automation service in October.
For more:
- Rochester Democrat & Chronicle has this article
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