Marketing fashion shifts over time in both fixed and mobile segments of the connectivity business.
Bundled services were the rage three decades ago, as fixed network operators turned to multi-product bundles in part to create scope economies when scale economies were eroding due to competition.
These days, more connectivity providers serving retail customers are likely to prefer a “pure play” approach of supplying fiber-to-home internet access as a standalone product, without bundling. That tends to be the favored approach for upstart and competitive ISPs, for example.
But larger legacy providers tend to be more amenable to product bundling. As analysts at Ovum note, bundles of fixed and mobile services are gaining favor with legacy providers.
A decade ago, executives at Verizon would have said they did not see customer demand for service bundles including both fixed and mobile service, though mobile operators in Europe and elsewhere disagreed.
These days, especially as home broadband now can be supplied to some segment of the market using the same 5G network used to support mobility services, bundling of “mobile” and “home broadband” service now makes more sense for Verizon.
Growth drivers also shift. After the voice market saturated, fixed network operators shifted to sales of additional lines; then facsimile lines; then dedicated internet dial-up access lines. Then came broadband internet access; video services and most significantly, mobility services that now represent the overwhelming driver of revenue.
Likewise, mobile operators have shifted from subscription growth to text messaging to internet access as the growth drivers. Now, in saturated markets, they look to higher average revenue per account for gains.
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