A spokesperson from Comcast (Etilities Forum) has recently confirmed that the company’s television subscribers will see rate increases in February 2009. Although the average increase will only be 3.2%, compared to 4% in previous years, any bump at all will be felt more this year as the economic situation in the US tightens wallets nationwide.

We’ve included a brief summary of the announced increases below.  However, your actual cost may differ depending on local taxes, promotional values, and other factors.  As always, check with your local Comcast representative to confirm.

The rate increase, when combined with the slowed economy, could drive subscribers to seek out new alternatives, including Hulu (Etilities Forum), Joost (Etilities Forum), and even the venerable (and versatile) Netflix (Etilities Forum). While the rate change is not slated to affect Comcast’s Internet or phone plan rates, it could trigger bundle consumers to scale back monthly payments by considering VoIP phone services like Vonage (Etilities Forum).

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

The cell phone era has provoked an inevitable decline in the use of landlines in homes everywhere. After all mobile technology has been growing increasingly cheap, reliable, and rich in functionality while landlines remain comparatively primitive. The Associated Press (AP) published an article yesterday about this trend being particularly pronounced in Europe where, as of 2007, there are 112 cell phones per 100 people and anywhere from 25% to 61% of households are using cell phones exclusively.

Now we previously discussed plenty of reasons why you might want to keep your landlines. In explaining the european cell phone statistics, the AP points out that “monthly line rental for fixed phones costs more on average than a prepaid mobile phone package.” I think that if the hassle and cost of a landline were low enough, everyone would want to have one. What’s the point here? Simply that all roads lead to VoIP.

The reason why current landlines are so expensive is because they depend on old, expensive technology and on greedy, outdated pricing models. Companies like Vonage (Etilities Forum) and Skype (Etilities Forum) have gone to great lengths to make VoIP technology cheap and reliable. Given that the broadband footprint is very strong in Europe, it should not be too long before the adoption of VoIP technology explodes in Europe to fulfill the need for landlines. The European consumer base just needs to realize that it’s an option.

And why should we Americans care? Well because this will make the VoIP industry more mature. Cheaper prices, better call quality, more providers… whether the technology is improved in Europe, Asia, America or Antarctica, everybody wins.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.