AT&T said that Telefonica is set for a “limited trial” of its Digital Life home security and automation service in Europe.

The US operator said the deal will mean that Telefonica can “offer trial users a wireless home automation platform all managed through an easy-to-use, web-based user interface”.

In a statement, AT&T said that it “independently owns its own platform, allowing for others to license a turnkey solution”. It has previously mooted offering it to other operators, with Telefonica now stepping up to the plate as the first.

Kevin Petersen, president of AT&T Digital Life, said: “Our service excels in security, ease-of-use, and the platform is built to expand and be open to third party technology.”

With a number of vendors also looking at the connected home, AT&T and Telefonica are making an early step into the market in order to avoid becoming purely connectivity providers for other players’ technology.

As operators already increasingly offer a mixture of fixed, mobile, internet and television services, they already have a gateway into many homes, which they are hoping to extend into emerging areas such as home automation.

Separately, AT&T announced a healthcare addition to Digital Life, designed to “seamlessly connect caregivers to their loved ones”.

Called Digital Life Care, the plan is to launch commercial services in 2015, with “limited employee trials” starting later this year in Atlanta and Dallas.