The global smart home market is exploding, reaching $93 billion in 2018 and growing to $155 billion by 2023 (Strategy Analytics). Over a third of homes in the U.S. are now smart homes, spending an average of $1,000 on devices beyond personal computing (Statista). Homes everywhere are adopting connected devices to help warm their rooms, lock their doors, entertain their children, water their grass, and much more.

Why now? The first connected refrigerator hit the market in 2000, but there are many reasons for smart home adoption taking off today. To name a few, semiconductor chip innovation has lead to simpler, inexpensive chips, reducing the cost of making IoT devices below sophisticated devices such as mobile phones and computers. Second, WiFi technology (IEEE 802.11) has advanced to support smart home connectivity, making streaming 4K video to your smart TV possible. The latest WiFi standard now supports 3,500 times faster rates than when the standard was founded in 1990.  When you combine Moore’s law and ubiquitous WiFi, you open up a huge world of connected applications in the home.

For consumers, these technology advances and new gadgetry are fun and exciting— until you hit a snag. As new devices are competing for home WiFi resources, consumers are feeling the burn: setup complications, connection issues, bandwidth issues, subpar signal strength, security threats, and more. It’s a logical conclusion when you think about it. The average number of devices in the home is approaching 10 (I have over 40!), which resembles an office network. But unlike businesses, homes can’t employ an IT pro to secure and maintain their network.

So who do consumers call when they hit a WiFi snag? Their Internet Service Provider (ISP). By 2019, more than 90 percent of US households will have WiFi routers through their ISP. Today, a broadband service is only as good as a consumer’s WiFi experience.

The Tidal Wave of Consumer Expectations: Are ISPs Ready? 

Consumers’ growing WiFi expectations have direct effects to service providers’ P&L. The obvious: increased support costs. As consumers call with issues pertaining to optimal router settings and connected device troubleshooting, service providers experience bloated support costs, including: staff training, longer call times, and increased truck rolls to homes. But, potentially more worrisome is the long term top line revenue hit. As consumers want their devices to simply and securely work on their WiFi, a worsening user experience will tarnish the ISP’s reputation and increase churn. If I buy a wireless smart TV and I can’t get a fast enough Internet experience, I’m going to move to a different provider.

As a whole, I would say service providers have been blindsided by the exploding WiFi expectations, evidenced by the sheer lack of network visibility built into existing support tool sets. The reality is that most operators consider their service only up to the gateway in a home.  Is there Internet available at an address and therefore can’t tell an Amazon Echo from a Nest camera— the latter of which can consume over 70 GB per month (Minim data)! If you don’t know what’s in the home, how can you support it?

Better yet, how can you help your customers optimize and secure it? The most common call driver “what’s my wireless network name and password” and almost all homes have devices where the service provider cannot help.

The good news is that consumers recognize the security and performance concerns, and they are willing to pay for “better.” The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) cited that approximately 90% of consumers surveyed have deep concerns about security and privacy of their information in a 2018 IoT consumer report, and AirTies has recently uncovered that 77% of consumers would consider upgrading their WiFi for better performance. They want help in connecting devices in the home.  So in essence, ISPs can not only address growing WiFi expectations, but monetize a supported offering.

Don’t Just Take Cover— Come Out Ahead Connecting the Last Foot

As an operator, the first step to harnessing the opportunity to provide a better WiFi experience for increased customer retention and revenue is to internalize that your service extends inside the home. Wiring up the home and providing gigabit speeds is great but consumers want that speed delivered wirelessly.  Consumers are in fact equating broadband and in-home wireless as the same thing.  When in this mindset, you will be able to assess the technologies you need to succeed. As that would require its own article and then some, here’s a quick list:

●     Embrace the questions – Consumers are willing to fairly pay to solve their connectivity issues

●     Mesh solution – Extend the WiFi to all corners of subscribers’ homes

●     Managed or “Cloud-Enabled” WiFi – Give your CSRs the ability to remotely manage the smart home network and proactively upsell subscribers who need it on premium data plans

●     Device Security – Secure your subscribers’ connected devices with firmware management and smart tracking

●     Self service – Give your subscribers a modern mobile app to manage their network, including guest access, parental controls, basic troubleshooting, etc.

●     IPTV – (While we’re at it), Give your subscribers the freedom to stream the networks and OTT content they want

●     No Hardware Lock-in – Give your subscribers hardware options to suit their needs and budget; most of all, don’t box your business into using hardware vendors who may not keep up with technology trends in a few years

These technologies are taking off, and your business can, too.

Jeremy Hitchcock is the founder and CEO of Minim, an IoT platform company that enables and secures a better connected home. Previously, Jeremy Hitchcock founded Dyn, an Internet infrastructure company. Established in 2001 from his college dorm room, Dyn grew to become a DNS, data, analytics, and traffic routing service provider for 20% of the Fortune 500 and Alexa 1000 and was acquired by Oracle in 2017.