Nationwide launch in Switzerland saves subscribers money and boost efficiency by automating energy use

AUSTIN, Texas – Feb. 28, 2012 — Smart Energy Summit — Asoka Corporation, a pioneer in powerline communication (PLC) products and cloud-based applications for digital living services, today announced the industry's first PLC-based home energy monitoring and management service for service providers and cable operators.

The Asoka Home Energy Management Service™ is based on Asoka's new family of PlugLine® adapters and a secure, user friendly web-based monitoring service that carriers can customize for their subscribers.

Asoka's service is simple to install by the end-user – just plug the adapters in – and does not require additional hardware such as in-home gateways. All new features and functions are made available through the cloud-based application; no changes, upgrades, or hardware replacement in the home is needed. The installed hardware will work with all future features, functions and services.

The solution works by plugging the adapters into an outlet and then plugging appliances into the adapters. PlugLine adaptors provide energy monitoring and control of these appliances, as well as a high-speed 500Mbps LAN network using existing power lines throughout the home. Subscribers can use the web service to track usage, turn devices on and off instantly or set up a schedule to turn them off during periods of disuse. Asoka's solution is truly Digital Living Made Simple™.

Asoka and Swisscom, Switzerland's leading telecom provider, have been partnering over the past year to develop and deploy the Home Energy Management Service. This service, branded in Switzerland as myStrom, has been adopted by residential homeowners throughout the country. Household energy usage data collected by Swisscom shows that literally dozens of common electric appliances not in active use in households are costing its customers hundreds of dollars per year in wasted energy.

"Asoka's Home Energy Management Service enables carriers to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) and reduce churn using a cloud-based service that saves the consumer money on energy bills and promotes environmental responsibility," said Eric Grubel, president and CEO of Asoka. "Our partnership with Swisscom has highlighted these advantages in real time. Once carriers discover how straightforward and economical this service is, it will be a key tool in meeting growing consumer demand for home energy management services."

"The Home Energy Management Service has been very well received by customers so far," said Andreas Martschitsch, Head of In-Home Connectivity at Swisscom. "This has enhanced customer satisfaction with minimal additional cost to Swisscom, either for equipment or service and support. Asoka even provides and manages the cloud-based customer portal customized for Swisscom."

Market adoption of traditional home energy management systems has been slow because of their complicated installation and configuration, as well as the high cost of the in-home gateways and wireless communication devices required to make the solution work in the home. Asoka's Home Energy Management Service encourages widespread adoption because its PlugLine PLC adapters are affordable and customer installable.

The Asoka system consists of a PL7667-MST master adapter for energy collection and Internet communication and PL7667-ETH Ethernet adapters for each monitored appliance to send data to the master and turn the appliance on and off. The system can be installed and made operational by the subscriber in less than 15 minutes.

Many carriers have already adopted PLC networks for digital home entertainment services because there are no truck rolls, extra cabling or equipment involved, and PLC adapters offer speeds up to 500 Mbps supporting IPTV, HDTV, streaming video and audio, data and file sharing and online gaming services throughout a household. Asoka's service particularly appeals to customers because the adapters support both high speed home area networking as well as energy management, all in the same adapter.

Asoka's PlugLine adapters are the perfect solution for a host of services that can be added to PLC home area networks with little or no additional equipment or installation. These include, in addition to home energy management, home monitoring using industry-standard IP cameras, thermostat control, e-health and parental controls.

For a demonstration video on Swisscom's myStrom service, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6fEgoRczJA

About Asoka

Asoka is a pioneer in powerline networking (PLN) technology that enables carriers and systems integrators to provide state-of-the-art digital living services. These include home area networks, energy management services, home monitoring and solar system monitoring. Asoka products have been deployed in over one million locations worldwide and provide fast and flexible installation of high-speed networks by using existing electrical wiring as the network medium. Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, Asoka's customers include AT&T, Comcast, Swisscom, Rogers, Motorola, FairPoint, CenturyLink and Clearwire. More information about Asoka can be found at www.asokatech.com.