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Ring FCC filing reveals a potential new home hub

Patrick Hearn
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An Federal Commuications Commision (FCC) filing submitted yesterday by Ring suggests that a new smart home hub may be on the way.

Ring has made no announcements or statements yet, but information gathered from the FCC filing points toward a low-power communications device. The filing is not surprising, as Ring is overdue for a proper hub, even though the company’s Ring Alarm Base Station can act as a hub for all of the Ring devices in your home. Smart home hubs act as connection points for disparate devices and enable different smart home devices to play together nicely in a way they cannot do on their own.

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The filing shows a label being placed in the lower-right corner of a square device with rounded corners that’s similar in shape to the Philips Hue Bridge. A diagram listed in the Test Results section of the FCC filing shows the equipment under test, or EUT, connecting to a router via Ethernet. The EUT is powered by its own AC adapter that plugs directly into the wall and is listed later in the filing as a 5 V, 100-240 VAC, 50/60 HZ adapter. Taking into consideration these details, it’s safe to assume the device will act as a smart home hub in some fashion (particularly when you consider the filing itself is listed as Ring LLC Communications Hub.)

The question is, what exactly is the hub for? Ring may be releasing a dedicated hub for its devices, but this filing could also be an upgrade on existing hubs. However, it doesn’t seem likely that this is an upgrade of the Ring Alarm Base Station, since it doesn’t include a built-in siren or any of the other features the Base Station includes. There have been various other Ring products leaked this year that may require a hub to operate, such as the rumored Ring Doorbox, a smart lockbox for the door. No more information has come out since the initial leak (which happened to fall on April 1, so take it with a grain of salt), but if Ring plans to branch out with a wider lineup of products, a hub could be a useful addition.

Until an official statement is made, all we can do is speculate on what the news means. We’ve reached out to Ring regarding the matter, and will update tgis story when we hear back. Hopefully, Ring will make an announcement in the weeks ahead about the nature of this device and what it means for the Ring ecosystem as a whole.

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Patrick Hearn
Patrick Hearn
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…
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