Andy Abramson writes about AT&T's Unity program (nyt link, at&t link) of fixed & mobile minutes packages as the MSO and VoIP killer. You really need to read Andy's post. This is a consumer twist and it is about billing. Well, the one thing that the Bells suck at is ..... BILLING. So if the play is all about Billing it will become a non-sequitur (absurdism).
And this is the supposed response to the MSO quad play of TV, internet, wireline phone and cell. Let's look at that:
- Cable has better speeds than DSL and at times better than VZ FiOS in performance.
- TV is TV - neither at&t nor VZ FiOS are doing anything remarkable with their TV service. (Changing a few channels in the package is NOT remarkable; allowing me to create a package of channels would be).
- Phone - unlimited dialing on landline phone is more expensive with RBOC
- Cellular - at&t is canabailizing its cellular revenue - OR it has realized that revenues for cellular have peaked - and now you have to play the retention game along side the steal from your neioghbors sandbox game.
Until someone does some real collaboration with all this -- Embarq is close with its Fixed-Mobile plan. But no one has true IPTV or a remarkable VOIP usage yet. This is just at&t making noise.
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