Verizon is doing some interesting experimenting with the concept of “presence” within the network. A little background for this is the idea that we have a single point of contact across disparate communication mediums. These communication mediums include e-mail, instant messaging, both on your PC at home and a mobile device. With FIOS, you get a fatter pipe to do cool things relative to constant connectivity from home, to car, to office etc.

Synchronization of IM, e-mail and phones is nothing new. The main point here is that “synching” these items is typically a manual act either by you the user or your software. The network in this case is really just a pipe to move information around your devices and things.

The new idea around higher bandwidth offerings, is to provide “presence” in the network itself. If you were to start an e-mail at home, and suddenly you had to leave prior to finishing it, the new capability would present the same e-mail draft on your phone or PDA without you having to “do anything”. This would be pretty cool, and as it is with most things, there are always two sides to a coin.

Taken to it’s extreme, your presence in the network, could really present some interesting scenarios. One quick example would be for commerce. Suppose the network “knew” you walked into a store in a mall (because your phone told it your position). Wouldn’t be cool if the store then knew you were there (from the network of course), knew what your preferences were, knew your banking data, pulled up on some kiosk where your favorite items were in the store, displayed if they were there or not, what sizes and colors were available (of course it may already know your size), and how much they cost.  I realize this might be a stretch, but given the ever-growing need to know more and more information about us, asap, this or something like it might not be that far off.  Is this good, maybe, maybe not.

Tags: im, verizon, fios, home integration, presence, network