Note: AT&T is moving closer to the "Quadruple Play" [1] by bundling wireless services with the usual cable/TV/phone triple play. Subscribers will have all their essential communications services locked into one provider's network and quite likely for extended contracts (that's very 'consumer' friendly). And as Big Brother to the government, AT&T will riffle through everyone's data communications at will to ensure subscribers are on the up and up. AT&T also just raised pricing 400% on SMS text messaging and 600% on Multimedia messaging - as one site [2]points out, that's a data transfer charge of $1,000 per MB for SMS. Whose world? [3]

from: Light Reading [4]

AT&T Bundles Up U-verse
MARCH 11, 2008
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AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T - message board) says it's looking for more ways to combine U-verse features into bundles and might even look into combining services -- including wireless services -- onto one bill.

"By the end of the year it will really be different," said AT&T senior vice president of consumer marketing Michael Antieri this morning at a Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. conference. "From all of our research, we've found consumers want seamlessness across all services; they don't want separate capabilities."

One example would be to take the mobile video share service that allows cell phone users to share video with each other in real time and add a video locker. That way, the content could be uploaded and viewed anywhere -- on a mobile phone, PC, or TV. (See AT&T's Wild About Wireless.)

Antieri also mentioned the idea of selling one voice plan to cover all devices, whether they be fixed or mobile. A similarly combined plan is being contemplated for fixed broadband and wireless broadband.

Separately, Antieri told analysts that U-verse TV has been coming in with a 90 percent broadband attachment rate, meaning 90 percent of all customers who sign up for U-verse TV also take a broadband service as well.

AT&T considers that encouraging, especially when combined with a previous announcement that 60 percent of its new video customers were former cable customers. (See AT&T Quickens U-verse Pace.)

Antieri even claimed U-verse's growth is starting to affect cable pricing. "When we launch in a market we see more competitive activity after we launch versus before we launch," he said.

On the flip side, traditional voice services are showing further signs of decay. Antieri noted that TDM voice is coming in with only a 40 percent broadband attachment rate.

AT&T expects to have more than 1 million U-verse TV subscribers by the end of the year (it currently has 231,000).

— Raymond McConville, Reporter, Light Reading