AT&T announces home automation platform, eco-ratings for consumer devices

Today, AT&T revealed that it's working on a new home monitoring and automation platform known as Digital Life. While it'll be marketed toward service providers, the IP-based system will allow business and residential users alike to remotely monitor cameras, lighting, thermostats, motion detectors, window and door sensors, along with a litany of other devices. It'll be demonstrated next week in Barcelona as part of the GSM Association's Connected Home experience. As you'd expect, we'll be there to bring you a peek of AT&T's handiwork.

The company has also announced that, later this year, customers will find eco-rating labels on AT&T-branded mobile devices. With this initiative, shoppers may evaluate criteria such as a product's energy efficiency, the percentage of recycled materials used in manufacture, and the inclusion of metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury. These factors and more will be presented as a composite score that evaluates the sustainability attributes of each device -- think of it as an easy way to get your green in gear. You'll find the PR for both announcements after the break.

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AT&T targets international service providers with platform for Remote Monitoring and Automation

DALLAS, FEBRUARY 23, 2012 - Conserving energy, checking on the welfare of loved ones, or maximizing home security can be as easy as pressing a key on your smartphone or tapping the screen of your tablet. AT&T has designed a new platform to offer these types of connections to service providers around the globe.

AT&T today announced its plans to launch AT&T Digital LifeTM, an IP-based remote monitoring and automation platform to equip global service providers with the capabilities to offer their subscribers customizable, web-based home automation, energy and security services. The platform, a complete end-to-end solution, will enable providers to deploy devices like wireless sensors and cameras that will communicate with a control center inside the home, and their end users will control the devices through a web-based user interface.

"We've built a robust platform that equips international service providers with the foundation needed to build a digital life solution for their customers," said Kevin Petersen, senior vice president, Emerging Devices, AT&T Business Solutions. "The platform is flexible, intuitive and scalable, equipping service providers a path in to a market of significant growth opportunity. With Digital Life, qualified providers will have the ability to arm their subscribers with technology to stay connected to what matters most to them in a simple, convenient, secure, and customizable way."

AT&T Digital Life offers several benefits to international service providers, including lowering entry costs into a market and the potential to generate new revenue streams and reduce churn.
The platform offers a customizable experience that enables service providers to develop a unique graphic user interface and extend branding to devices. Service providers will have the opportunity to build solutions for customers based on specific needs.

Digital Life is wirelessly enabled and features a system designed for multi-country use, supporting multiple segments – consumer, small business and healthcare – and carrying a wide range of certified devices, including motion detectors, connected cameras, security keypads, window and door sensors, lighting and thermostat controls, smoke detectors, and water sensors, among other devices, identified and offered by participating providers.

The AT&T platform is expected to be available to qualified providers later this year. It has been designed for self installation in the home or office.

AT&T will begin demoing the remote monitoring and home automation platform capabilities on Feb. 27 at the GSMA Connected House at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

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NEW AT&T eco-rating SYSTEM TO HELP CONSUMERS LEARN ABOUT environmental FEATURES of mobile devices

Wireless Shoppers Soon to Have Information on Device Materials, Energy Efficiency
and Other Sustainability Attributes

DALLAS, February 23, 2012 - People eager to check out the newest, fastest and coolest mobile handset devices will soon be able to learn about its environmental features too.

That's because a new eco-rating system is planned for launch later this year by AT&T*, which developed the system in collaboration with BSR, a global business network and consultancy focused on sustainability. Consumers will find AT&T eco-ratings on simple, easy-to-read-and-understand labels appearing on AT&T-branded mobile devices, once they are implemented in a few months.

The new system, which sets an example for industry-wide sustainability efforts, is a direct response to customer wants and needs. According to a Deloitte study* on consumer trends in the purchase of sustainable products, 54 percent of surveyed shoppers consider sustainability to be one of their decision making factors.

AT&T's eco-rating system will cover attributes such as: environmentally preferable materials, energy efficiency, responsible end-of-life treatment and environmentally-responsible manufacturing. In assigning ratings, device manufacturers will submit an assessment of each device to determine how many of 15 key criteria are met. These criteria cover everything from the percentage of recycled metals used in the device, to restriction of compounds such as lead, cadmium, mercury, nickel and antimony trioxide/antimony compounds. The overall rating represents the composite score of these environmental attributes.

AT&T plans to add the ratings icon to in-store collateral later this year. Consumers will also be able to visit a website to obtain detailed information about how AT&T and BSR devised the ratings, learn more about what makes up the overall sustainability scale for mobile devices and see available products.

AT&T plans to evolve the rating system as technological innovations, industry norms and sustainability needs change.

"Increasingly, consumers are mindful of a product's impact on the environment. We are excited to work with leading third-party organizations like BSR and our suppliers to help make it easier for our customers to learn about the environmental impact of products they plan to purchase," said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices, AT&T Mobility. "Our new eco-rating system will make it easier for our customers to make more informed purchasing decisions."

"At BSR, we work hand-in-hand with companies looking to develop innovative business strategies to help create a more just and sustainable world," said Vijay Kanal, BSR's Director, Information and Communications Technology Practice. "This eco-rating system, which we worked with AT&T to develop, should not only have broad consumer impact, it should help accelerate the integration of sustainable business practices across the entire mobile device industry."

AT&T is committed to integrating sustainable business practices across its business and was recently added to Corporate Responsibility Magazine's 12th Annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List. AT&T was also included in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (DJSI). Visit www.att.com/csr to learn more about sustainability at AT&T. Also visit www.att.com/csr to download the 2010 AT&T Sustainability Report. To watch a video about the rating system, please click here.