Not compatible with SmartThings.
This is similar to a powerline system, it’s sending pulse waves over your existing electrical wires to the receiving device.
The UPB powerline communication method consists of transmitting digitally encoded information over the electrical powerline as a series of precisely timed electrical pulses (called UPB Pulses) that are superimposed on top of the normal AC power waveform (sine wave).
There are lots of ways to do a “little bit of something” if the Internet or the SmartThings hub are not available, it just depends on the details of what you want.
For example, HomeKit operates locally for everything except voice control, and the voice control can be done by cellular if needed. So if you only choose devices which work with both HomeKit and SmartThings, you can still have operation even when smartthings isn’t working. There’s a list of devices that can work with both in the community – created wiki. It’s not a long list, but there are some:
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Devices_that_Work_with_HomeKit_and_SmartThings
Alternatively, you can do some things with Z wave direct Association, which, once set up, will work even if you get rid of the Hub altogether. It’s a good choice for virtual three-way switches all within one hop of each other. But again it depends on the exact details of what you need.
If you find yourself really attracted to the powerline kind of solutions, you might look into Insteon instead of SmartThings.
There are some other options as well, but again it all comes down to the details.
But there’s a reason that most home automation has moved away from the X 10/Insteon/powerline options to wireless radio frequency instead. The powerline options are not as reliable as they generally claim, and you are really restricted in both coverage and device type. But choice is good. If it works for you, that’s what matters. 