You’re most likely familiar with bundled technology services.  Your cable provider probably offers you “a better value” if you subscribe to their Cable TV, Internet, and Telephone services.  If you’re lucky, you may also have the choice of FIOS service from Verizon (Etilities Forum), which provides the same package deal, just through the phone company.

Now, cable companies are planning to expand their bundled offerings by putting wireless data services into the mix.  Om Malik reports on his GigaOm site that Comcast (Etilities Forum), Cox Communications (Etilities Forum), Cablevision (Etilities Forum), Charter Communications (Etilities Forum), and Bend (Etilities Forum) have all announced some degree of planned wireless service.  Certainly, their competitors won’t be far behind.  In addition, the recent sale of a wide swath of the wireless spectrum to some of these and other providers will boost their ability to provide ever further-reaching coverage to mobile devices at home and on the road.  Since those spectrum purchases cost hundreds of millions of dollars, there’s no doubt that providers will be aggressive in selling services to recoup their expenses quickly.

At first glance, this seems to be a great benefit to consumers, and in many situations that may be the case.  However, the other side of this development is that your choices may be inefficiently limited to those that come with the provider’s specific bundles.  Consumers need to remain far more aware of exactly what services they are paying for and at what cost.  For example, I do not use a landline telephone enough to justify bundling the cable company’s VOIP service with my other services solely because (according to them), it will “save me hundreds of dollars per year!”  Instead, I use a third-party VOIP service that costs a few dollars per month.  This is perfect since the service is to call 911 if ever needed.

Instead, the widening bundle represents a potentially cost-saving mechanism for consumers whose usage of all of those services warrants the consolidation.  There will certainly be those that feel paying a little more for the convenience of fewer bills is worth the cost as well, but in a leveling economy (or whatever it’s being called this week), the number of folks able to take that route are dwindling.

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