It's pretty clear at this point that broadband providers are terrified of becoming "dumb pipe" providers, and are constantly on the hunt for new forms of revenue. In addition to the triple (and occasionally quadruple) play, carriers are now selling homes and cars. Many, like Comcast, are getting heavily into the Internet content game. Telephony Online thinks the next big thing ISPs will be getting into is home automation.Of course we've been reading about how our smart refrigerator could SMS us needed groceries over broadband since broadband began, and so far such projects have only seen limited deployment in upscale developments. We remember writing about BellSouth smart home deployments in 2003 that never went anywhere.

One company we know is at least considering it is Verizon, who'll be offering a product called "Homewave" sometime this year that could lay the foundation for FiOS home automation services. Since they're already building home internal networks (in Verizon's case via MOCA) for entertainment, we assume they'll ultimately want to push as many services as possible (once they get this whole TV and billing thing down).