How Consumers Benefit from Bundled-Communication Services

Image courtesy of Niels Heidenreich at Flickr.com

Telecommunication companies are constantly looking for ways to market their products and to analyze how clients can make use of all of the services they have to offer. Multi-play is the latest term that describes the way telecommunication companies are bundling their television, telephone, mobile phone and internet access into one package. Before companies used to only offer one or two of these services independently, but it seems to be the more the merrier. Back in the day each service was a completely different service offered, and it even had different companies offering each one. In reality, technology has taken us to the point where everything is converging into one service to the point that most home utensils are now completely integrated through the Internet of Thing (IoT).

For most telecommunication companies the services offered started off with landline phones. A landline in the 80s and 90s was the easiest way to communicate with others and keep in touch, or hold coast to coast meetings. The landline was the king of communications at a time. In 2013 statistics showed that there over 1.16 billion subscribers worldwide, which may seem like a lot of people, but in reality is a steep decrease if compared to the 1.263 billion subscribers in 2003. In ten years this tech, that uses radio waves for transmission, has become more and more scarce. The main reason is all of the updates that have occurred in the past decade that have almost completely replaced the landline technology with broadband and fiber optic connection, even in rural and remote locations. It is thought that by 2025, there will be no need for the landline at all. In the United States the current telecommunication companies are well aware of this, which has led them to package their services and find alternatives for users that include this new tech, but still does not leave behind the landline until the transition is complete.

For now, the major telecommunication companies in the US are bundling these services in a variety of different packages, known as multi-play. Multi-play is a term used in marketing that describes the way of bundling the different services like internet access, television, telephone and mobile phone service. This phrase covers all of these services and any other service that may pop up in the future or has now become more trending like VoIP or MiFi. It is divided into a few categories like dual-play, triple-play and quadruple-play. Dual-play services includes two services for example high-speed internet and a VoIP, or TV Cable and high-speed internet. These two services are bundled into one package deal with better rates than if they were taken individually. Triple-play where under one same subscription customers can bundle three communication services like internet, TV and landline. And finally, quadruple-play combines not only the three services mentioned above, but mobile services as well. By the end 2016 countries like the UK and the US expect all of their providers to offer quad-play. By convincing users of the need for each of the individual services and moreover that they are all needed simultaneously will be at the core of their success.  

Image courtesy of Ian Sterling at Flickr.com

There are many changes coming to the telecommunication industry, and the expectations that consumer have with what they expect to receive is becoming higher as the technology available offers new ways of communicating, or ways of doing it cheaper and faster. Consumers nowadays have their minds set on multi-use devices, networked products, personalized bundled packages and converged services. Convergence is known as the ability to migrate multiple communication services into one single network on a network architecture. A clear example of what is already happening in telecommunication convergence is a smartphone and how it allows you not only to place a phone call, but also go online to check social networks or email. These converged services could include on-demand video, digital TV, VoIP, wireless application and high speed internet. 

Most telecommunication companies are just starting to explore the different ways of offering convergence services. Although this is leading telecommunications to a brand new day where the three biggest telecom service companies will find that their objectives and services have merged, almost to the point where it will become only one industry that bundles all of them into one same network. The big players are all coming out to see who stays with the market and who can keep up with all of the demands of the tech-savvy users. At the end of the day, telecommunication and digital media are in need of monetization which boils down to traditional media networks, digital media networks, internet entrepreneurs and finally consumers. Consumers will always be after a high-quality service that offers excellent and interesting content. Traditional media networks, digital media networks and internet entrepreneurs are now seen with the task to fill the consumer’s needs by providing easy-to-find, niched content of high quality through membership or subscription packages that will be sure to give them everything they need in terms of telecommunication. The days of simply using the telephone to make calls is over, the future will be all about curation of content and bundling telecommunication services.