Philips, KPN forge broadband alliance for ‘connected home’

Royal Philips Electronics and KPN recently forged an alliance to jointly develop the use of broadband and associated enabling technologies in the "connected home."

The alliance will see the combination of Philips products and technologies with KPN’s broadband platform. Initially focused on the Dutch consumer market, both companies envision the alliance to be a first step toward the business-to-business market, where there is a growing demand for financial services and healthcare for broadband connectivity solutions.

Philips and KPN plan to jointly offer consumers a complete package of Philips’ connectivity devices with KPN broadband service and installation to drive the adoption of universal always-on broadband solutions.

This Philips-KPN bundled offering will be available to consumers in KPN retail outlets and in partnership with retail channels.

Philips views broadband as critical to the "connected home" because it enables the next phase of content delivery – which moves beyond static Internet webpages to the delivery of streaming music and videos.

Ultimately, this will shift the way consumers view entertainment – and enable them to choose the content they want, when they want it.

"Widespread adoption of broadband is key. Without it, all the buzz about a connected home is meaningless. This is why Philips has announced its alliance with KPN, to jointly commercialize broadband-ready multimedia and entertainment products and services," said Gottfried Dutine, Philips executive vice president and a member of the board of management.

"We believe the Philips-KPN alliance will lay the foundation for a broadband-rich home environment that fosters personal expression through next-generation applications like full speech interactivity, reactive lighting, and seamless content sharing," he added.