What is the power of the Quadruple Play?

The first I heard of the Triple Play (Telephone, Broadband-cable modem, Cable TV) was in 1999. I was with SBC sitting in a market-wide (San Diego) meeting discussing our strategic levers across all product lines. I represented the cellular/pcs business unit and the discussion centered on “how to combat the cable company’s Triple Play threat”. Our solution was to have our own “bundle” to compete against theirs. We would use the Telecom Triple Play: Telephone, Broadband-DSL, Cellular as our bundled offering.

Seemed like a reasonable idea. When consumers subscribed to all three services, we would give them a discount, and someday combine it all onto 1 bill. By throwing cellular into the mix, we thought we would trounce those cable guys. The program sunk like a lead weight.

It is 8 years later and I don’t bundle, do you? Qwest Communications (formerly US West, where I got my start) has been clinging to a telecom Triple Play for nearly 6 years, AT&T sends high gloss/high fashion collateral to my house quarterly to pool my services and Verizon has been pushing bundled offering in its Telephone markets forever. In offering a single bill & @10% discounts the Telco’s have not attracted many new takers relative to their total bases over time. While the bundle has proven to be a good retention tool, it is not a net revenue generator at all.

Now we are entering the world of the Quadruple Play! Cable Companies have added cellular to their offerings, while Telco’s have been getting into the Media space, both through a variety of partnerships. Did you know AT&T has had this going for 2+ years and some of the cable companies have been offering cellular for about a year?

Guess what? People aren’t biting. Rich people don’t care about a single bill or a paltry discount. Poor people can’t and won’t spend that much money on communications. The middle class is shopping for the best value for the 4 services and saving more money by sending 2 to 4 checks a month to 2 to 4 communications suppliers. They are saving more than the 10% by truly matching services to their needs. The Triple and Quadruple Plays are interesting and logical for the operators, but they don’t seem to get it from the consumer’s perspective. For the rest of the story: Tune in next time to: “The Telecom Wallet” or “How I learned to live with the Bomb”

Author: Gary Cohen