It is possible, perhaps highly possible, that the “preferred consumer service bundle” of the future includes internet access and entertainment video, on both fixed and mobile platforms. If you think about it, that also implies that the mobile bundle “naturally” will be a quadruple play.
When consumers buy service, voice and messaging generally are included, and the big issue is how big a data allotment to buy. So the “foundation” for virtually every mobile subscription is “voice, messaging and data.” Add entertainment video and the consumer has a quadruple play.
That inevitably is going to require a change in the way data usage is rated on mobile platforms. On fixed networks, a linear video subscription is zero rated. Consumers do not pay extra for use of bandwidth. Over the top video data consumption is rated.
Up to this point, all data usage on a mobile network has been rated, though voice and increasingly messaging, are zero rated, for domestic use. As we move towards standard expectations that entertainment video services are available, and widely used, by mobile customers, video will have to be zero rated, or consumers will not watch very much video.
In fact, so much of the future development of the consumer mobile and fixed networks business now hinges on video entertainment that it drives internet access developments as well. That consumers buy bundles is obvious.
Most U.K. consumers, for example, now buy at least parts of a bundle of services (internet access, voice, video, mobile), EY study found. Some 93 percent of U.K. broadband households now have some form of bundle, EY found.
That same study also found that TV and mobile bundles score best in terms of satisfaction and loyalty.
That is an indicator of why Verizon, focusing more on becoming a mobile advertising platform for video services and app, and AT&T, which is more intent on becoming a force in mobile content delivery, are working on mobile content delivery systems. If the U.K. preferences wind up being seen in the U.S. market, then the “best possible” bundle will be video entertainment plus mobile service.
At the moment, the most-popular U.S. bundle likely is “internet access plus TV.” That is a preference parallel to “mobile plus TV,” with one twist. Where the most-popular fixed network bundle arguably is TV-and-internet, the most-popular mobile package could naturally become “mobile voice, mobile internet, mobile video,” for the simple reason that buying mobile internet access always comes with voice and messaging included.
Source: STL Partners
In that sense, the “natural” mobile bundle is going to be “bigger” than the natural fixed line bundle, simply because purchasing mobile video will assume the presence of mobile internet access, which in turn presumes the customer also gets voice and messaging (the services are stacked upon each other).
The other study finding that reinforces all thinking about bundles is that 55 percent of consumers would buy a bundle “only” if it also represents a price discount. That is logical. Consumers and suppliers are used to the notion of volume discounts.
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