Applications
Comcast expands digital homes with Xfinity Home Security
MUMBAIl US cable major Comcast has expanded its new home security business into six additional U.S. market areas.
Xfinity Home Security offers traditional home security components like police and fire alarm protection backed by 24/7 professional monitoring, as well as the ability to adjust digital thermostats, turn lights on or off and watch secure live streaming video from wireless cameras while away from home.
The service also comes with a new Xfinity Security app, which is available for free on Apple’s iTunes App Store.
“Xfinity Home Security brings digital home monitoring to a new level,” said Mitch Bowling, SVP and GM of new businesses for Comcast Cable. “It comes with a range of broadband-based technologies that empower customers to stay better connected to their home virtually anytime, anywhere.”
Xfinity Home Security offers consumers the ability to create personalized settings that can do things like provide real-time e-mail or text alerts when doors open or close or when motion detectors report activity occurring inside or outside of the home.
In addition, the service comes with a tablet-like touch screen with a menu of widgets that allow access to the latest weather, news, traffic, and sports scores.
In addition to 24/7 professional monitoring, Xfinity Home Security provides customers the ability to:
* watch live streaming video of their home via video wireless video cameras;
* access security controls remotely via a Web portal or the Xfinity Security app for the iPhone;
* manage home utilities like digital thermostats and lights;
* have more peace of mind since both battery and cellular backup helps ensure customers remain fully protected even in the event of a power outage;
* access features from some of Comcast’s existing services. For example, an Xfinity Voice customer could listen to a voicemail through an app on the security interface.
Today, Comcast is selling the Xfinity Home Security Preferred Package for as low as $39.95 per month. Xfinity Home Security customers will also be eligible to receive up to a 20 per cent discount on their homeowners’ insurance.
The service was first unveiled in Houston in mid 2010 and is now being rolled out in parts of Philadelphia, Portland, Jacksonville, Sarasota/Naples, Chattanooga and Nashville. Additional markets will be introduced on a rolling basis.
Applications
Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
