AT&T's Petersen explains Digital Life 'seamless hub' strategy

ATLANTA—AT&T's plan to become a central, seamless hub that integrates a variety of systems into its Digital Life platform is becoming a reality, according to Kevin Petersen, SVP, AT&T Digital Life.

Petersen, who heads up AT&T's home security and automation business, told Security Systems News that AT&T has always planned for Digital Life to be an open-standards, managed platform. What's new is the telecom's partnerships with Lutron Electronics, Samsung, Qualcomm Life and LG Electronics.  With those products and services, customers now have more flexibility and a simpler smart-home experience, he said.

The integration is all about broadening customers' “peace of mind,” he said. “Customers get the benefit of security no matter where they are, as well as automation features.”

Awareness of home automation has grown and outdoor motion-detector cameras and automated lighting systems, for example, are becoming more popular among customers, Petersen said.

AT&T's partnerships allow users to customize their residential systems to suit their individual needs. “We want to simplify it and make it real for people,” he said.

“I'm a practical thinker,” Petersen said. AT&T's strategy is to “let the system work for [the customer's very specific residential needs],” he explained.

For example, a customer who is on vacation may be alerted to a water leak at their home. With Digital Life, they can take care of the problem remotely.

Petersen emphasized that Digital Life needs to be simple for customers to understand and use. “I want to make an elevator pitch [to consumers]. ”

The recently announced partnerships and the fact that Digital Lif is an open platform “brings sense to security,” he said.