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Technology Stocks : Echelon Corporation (ELON) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (1975)	4/30/2000 10:45:00 PM
From: r.edwards	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3076

You may be right. Vattenfall- from the chat with Mr. Stanfield:CFO 32.) What time frame does management see for mass-market adoption of Home Automation and true, integrated Home Networking? Stanfield: That depends on a catalyst. A catalyst may be service providers. That is why we work closely with the OSGI effort and pioneers such as Telia and Vattenfall. ragingbull.com National Post (formerly The Financial Post) April 19, 2000 Wednesday NATIONAL EDITIONS HEADLINE: Swedes see smart homes changing lives: State utility gets into billion dollar market BYLINE: Eva Sohlman DATELINE: STOCKHOLM STOCKHOLM - The race is on to give Swedes -- already among the world's most avid users of mobile phones and the Internet -- the ability to control machines in their homes with their cellphones and the Web. Now power company Vattenfall has entered the fray, offering technology-mad Swedes the ability to run 'smart homes' by remote control -- a market that could eventually be worth billions of dollars in Europe and North America. The system launched this month by state-owned Vattenfall, Sweden's biggest utility, offers the user control over machines and security systems in the home and the possibility to receive warning signals over the electricity network. 'The smart home enables the user to set the video for example and to regulate the temperature in the house over the mobile phone or the Internet,' said Carl-Erik Nyquist, chief executive at Vattenfall. 'An alarm will go off if the freezer breaks in your summer house, or if you've forgotten to switch off the iron, and you'll be able to sort it out from work.' Two other Swedish corporate giants -- Electrolux, the world's biggest maker of appliances, and Ericsson, the third-biggest maker of mobile phones -- have already formed a joint venture to make smart homes a reality. Vattenfall's system offers control of heating, electricity, humidity, alarm systems and domestic machines such as ovens, videos, fridges, freezers and washing machines. Mr. Nyquist said the venture was part of a growing trend by utilities to diversify their businesses into telecom and Internet services. Householders will have a private Internet home page, secured by firewalls and a security code, to control their homes, and operate machines via a small box installed in the house. Mr. Nyquist said the new system would not require people to buy new ovens or fridges. 'Small units will be added to the machines that can then communicate with the box,' he said. The system will also help people save time and money by combining services they pay for separately today. For instance Vattenfall is co-operating with Electrolux. 'People will be able to rent a washing machine in a 'pay-as-you-wash' deal, registering water and electricity used for each wash,' Mr. Nyquist said. About 50% of Sweden's 8.9 million population have access to the Internet, enabling them to link up with the new system. So the users could be anyone -- the average Swede. Vattenfall aims to connect 50,000 of its one million customers this year to the service which will cost about 200 kronor ($23) a month. Its goal is to link up all its customers by 2005. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates demand for smart home solutions in Western Europe and the United States will have a value of about 300 billion kronor ($35-billion) in 2005. 'The smart house is a part of Vattenfall's diversification into telecoms and the Internet and we think it is really exciting,' Mr. Nyquist said. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------