Nortel Buzzboard

Click here to call me at home.

No, that doesn’t work yet, but this week Nortel unveiled a new solution called the IP Powered Home that makes it possible.  Targeted at service providers, IP Powered Home is essentially a bundle of consumer-based applications that merge phone, Internet, and TV services in the home.

The solution uses residential VoIP as a base, then adds on optional services that customers can subscribe to from their service provider (much like today’s residential voice service model).

The core solution provides VoIP lines for each member of the family, a single number for both home and mobile phones, and video calling features.  Customers can set up call routing preferences based on time of day, day of the week, called ID, and set preferences for which phone to call first (home, mobile or both simultaneously).  All this is done through a simple web interface.

But the really cool stuff comes in the optional bundles that can be added on to this base VoIP service:
Listen to a podcast on the new IP Powered Home solution and Nortel’s new Adaptive Application Engine software

• A web bundle allows users to “merge” their phone and Internet, creating the “call me” feature I simulated above.  Without displaying a phone number, consumers can be called directly from a link on their web page, blog, social network like Facebook or even email signature using simple voice or a full video service.
• A TV bundle allows users to manage voicemail messages, call logs, instant messages and see who’s calling directly on their TV screen. They can also initiate calls from their TV and easily reject, ignore, or forward calls using their TV remote.
• A mobile bundle provides a dual-mode (cellular and WiFi) phone that can be used in the home or as a regular mobile phone.  This provides obvious benefits of enabling the mobile phone to be used at home without using plan minutes, while keeping the same convenience of a mobile phone while out of the home.

All of this is made possible in part through Nortel’s new Adaptive Application Engine software also unveiled this week.  Interestingly - none of these announcements have been timed around an event that traditional service providers would attend, but instead around The Cable Show, the industry’s big cable event this week in New Orleans.

In the U.S., Cable operators are already eating into the market share of traditional voice line providers.  Could new services like these be the key to further gains?