FORT WAYNE – How about peeking in on the kids from work to make sure they made it home OK?
Or maybe you’d like to turn the lights on inside the house, blocks before pulling into the garage.
Both are possibilities with the Xfinity Home Security system, which Comcast Corp. is touting today during a media demonstration in Fort Wayne. The service costs $39.95 a month.
Besides around-the-clock monitoring, the Xfinity system would allow customers to adjust digital thermostats and watch live-streaming video from wireless cameras while away from home using an iPhone or iPad. Users also can create personalized settings to get real-time email or text alerts when doors are opened or closed.
Another feature is motion detectors that report activity in and around a house. Customers also receive a tablet-like touch-screen keypad that allows them to adjust security settings and see weather, news, traffic and sports updates while at home.
“We’re always looking at ways to bring innovation and value to our customers,” Comcast spokesman Patrick Paterno said. “Home security is a natural extension of our sophisticated network.”
Comcast offers Internet, cable and phone services as well.
Frontier Communications spokesman Matt Kelley said the business has yet to partner with a company to offer home security.
Comcast’s system is solely its own, Paterno said. The service is available in Indianapolis and other parts of Indiana, as well as Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., New Jersey, Florida and Tennessee.
The service debuted in Houston in 2010. Comcast started promoting it in the Fort Wayne market in November. The company hasn’t tallied how many have signed up for the service, Paterno said.
“Xfinity Home Security brings digital home monitoring to a new level,” Tim Collins, a senior vice president for Comcast, said in a statement. “It comes with a range of broadband-based technologies that empower customers to stay better connected to their home virtually anytime, anywhere.”
Comcast has about 500,000 customers in Indiana.
