Verizon (NYSE: VZ) may have dropped its home automation unit, but it appears that the service is quietly finding new life with Nexia, Ingersoll Rand's home automation division--so quietly, in fact, that even the carrier's customer service reps have reportedly been caught by surprise. Verizon stopped accepting orders for its Home Monitoring and Control product in February 2014. At that time it said would only allow FiOS customers who already subscribe to the $9.99 monthly service to continue using it. Since then it has been transferring early customers to Nexia Home Intelligence at the same $9.99 monthly price the telco had been charging for the services. However, CEPro reports that the transition has been fraught with confusion for both consumers and even Verizon customer representatives, who said in a Verizon forum they did not know the transition was taking place. One customer wrote in the forum that they called Verizon to "cancel the HMC and the rep did not know the service was being phased out. She wanted to know if I was unhappy with the service." While Verizon no longer formally offers the service, it still provides customers a Z-Wave gateway, the Nexia Bridge, as a replacement device for Verizon's original hub. The service provider also offers FiOS Quantum routers from Greenwave Systems that include Z-Wave and ZigBee automation capabilities. Still, it took the telco over a year to transition its home monitoring and control customers, who were unhappy that they could not buy compatible products. Despite Verizon's lackluster movement into the home automation game, a number of other players including AT&T (NYSE: T) and Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) have been faring well in the emerging market. Comcast has about 500,000 home automation customers, while AT&T has a few hundred thousand for its Digital Life product. For more: - CEPro has this article Related articles: Verizon beefs up in-home Wi-Fi with Quantum Gateway router Verizon makes all of its FiOS broadband tiers symmetrical, upgrades new, existing users for free
US telco Verizon has shifted users of its home automation platform to Nexia, following dropping the home monitorings and control product in February 2014. Customers have been grandfathered into a new contract at the same $9.99/month price.