Fon at South Summit 2017
Yesterday at South Summit, Fon’s Director of Marketing, Communication, and Design, Maria Rodriguez, joined the Smart Homes and Smart Habits panel to share Fon’s vision on this topic. “As a WiFi technology company, and experts in connecting people with WiFi, our ultimate goal is to make the management of WiFi networks smarter. We believe connectivity is the cornerstone of the Smart Home!”.
The way in which we access the internet at home has changed completely. Nowadays, we have more and more connected devices that demand access in more places. According to Qualcomm, by 2020 the average four-person household will have 50 smart devices.
Just one single router is not going to make it! With so many devices fighting for connectivity, a WiFi mesh system is needed to boost coverage, reach, capacity, and speed, and to create a single WiFi network.
Our homes are the center of our lives, and many activities traditionally carried out outside of the home, such as working, exercising, shopping, and learning, now occur inside our homes too. The productivity we now require in this environment is significantly greater than it was even a generation ago. When we design the technology for the home of the future should think about people’s needs all the time to be successful.
This is one of the key points that El País took from Maria’s panel session at the event. And it isn’t just Fon’s opinion! In their article, the journalists highlighted this shared opinion from both Sanjay Sarma, Vice President of Open Learning at MIT, and Maciej Kranz, Vice President of innovation strategy at Cisco. IoT is not just technology for technology’s sake. It’s about implementing technology to solve real-life problems!
So what should that technology look like?
For Smart Homes to be a mass market success, the technology delivering connectivity must be:
1. Fast, reliable, and secure: This goes without saying!
2. Simple: No extra efforts, users just want to live an uninterrupted life with no worries.
3. Transparent: The user gets full visibility of networks, and can run speed tests and check usage by device.
4. Social: Guest Network can be created for family & friends, making sharing content a more seamless experience.
5. Accessible: User-friendly and intuitive applications that create remarkable experiences.
6. Responsive rather than demanding: Understanding our needs and meeting them before we ask.
So Service Providers need to watch out! At present, over 60% of support calls to telcos are related to WiFi issues. At the same time, OTT players such as Google and Eero have entered the home WiFi game, and are winning. Operators should focus on investing in technology that will deliver customer satisfaction and make the Smart Home a reality.