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The Connected Home is here. As techUK publishes its fourth report into the state of the Connected Home in the UK, research shows the established proliferation of smart devices in domestic settings, from televisions to smart speakers, security cameras and heating. The larger global players--Apple, Google and Amazon--have agreed with the Zigbee Alliance to form a working group with the intent of increasing compatibility among smart home products, which is (excuse the pun) a "smart" move. But what underpins a truly connected home? Fast, reliable, and the increased bandwidth, offered by next generation mobile technology: 5G.

A lot of news hit the industry last month at CES 2020. Amid new product and service announcements were some partnership announcements too. One that's worth picking back up and discussing is the new working group formed by Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance called Project Connected Home over IP, which aims to develop a new, open standard for smart-home device connectivity. According to MarketsandMarkets, the smart-home sector will be worth 151.4 billion by 2024. Growth will be driven in part by factors like increased awareness and adoption of smart devices, a growing desire for saving energy and reducing carbon footprints, the ubiquitous adoption of smartphones, and increasingly accessible solutions in terms of pricepoint and ease of use.

The Internet & Television Association (formerly the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and commonly known as the NCTA) estimates that 80% of residences in the United States have access to gigabit speeds from cable companies via HFC and FTTH. Cable operators seek to solidify their position within consumer markets for broadband services as wireless carriers seek to leverage the enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) component of 5G to gain a foothold for indoor residential and small business services. With little competition in the consumer in-home segment, certain wireless carriers see fixed wireless as a pathway to early revenue as their vendors work diligently to ensure eMBB services may be provided on a mobility basis rather than simply portable or fixed wireless solutions, which shall be predominate initially. A battleground is emerging for consumer broadband between cable companies espousing 10G (meaning symmetrical 10 Gbps speeds delivered over hybrid fiber-coaxial networks and not tenth generation) versus wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless who will pursue the residential and small business market with fixed wireless 5G. Earlier this year, AT&T likewise stated that 5G will be a substitution for fixed-line broadband within the next three to five years. However, we see the consumer segment as a major challenge area for mobile communications service providers due to a few key factors including market inertia and deployment of WiFi6 devices.

Now that Google has unveiled the new additions to its Home speaker lineup and Sonos has launched its own Alexa-enabled device, Microsoft seriously has to hurry up if it wants its assistant to have a shot at finding a place in our homes. Even though we may finally be close to seeing the Cortana-enabled Harman Kardon Invoke speaker arrive in stores, Microsoft is still lagging behind its rivals in the smart home race. The company may be trying to catch up, and has added a new "Connected Home" section to the Cortana Notebook menu in some Windows 10 PCs. You should see a new item called Connected Home. After you enable this, Cortana can connect to smart home services like Hue, SmartThings, Nest, Insteon and Wink.