Just a few years ago VoIP broadband phone service was the biggest thing to hit the home communications market with its ability to save consumers substantial amounts of money on their phone bill, effectively reducing one's overall cost for elective utilities. It made having unlimited phone service, and high speed Internet affordable at a time when most people had neither due to the high cost associated with these services. There were a small number of companies that would bundle phone, TV, and Internet service on the same bill, but not as many as today.



The new battleground for communications in the home today is package deals with all of your phone, TV, and Internet services bundled on the same bill. The major players in this epic battle of the bundles are phone and cable companies. The appeal for consumers being lower cost, and just the convenience of having everything on one bill. Both companies offer a choice high speed Internet plans, home phone service plans, and digital television programming packages. Currently, only the telephone companies provide cellular service, but that will be changing soon. Comcast is rumored to be looking into providing cellular service to its customer base in the near future.

Even with bundled packages being so popular right now, consumer demand has caused some of the big telcos to unbundle some of their services. AT&T and Verizon now offer naked DSL, or DSL without phone service, whereas in the past you needed to have at least local phone service to get their DSL package. So, what are the advantages of having all of your services on one bill compared to going A la carte? There are pros and cons in both scenarios, and it ultimately comes down to your personal usage habits, and how much you're willing to spend, or even customer loyalty.

As discussed earlier, one of the biggest advantages and most common reason for bundled services is convenience. Why deal with the hassle of three or four different bills each month, all coming in at different times, all due on different dates when you can get one bill at the same time every month, and pay it all at the same time? It's a no brainer. It just makes life a lot easier. Not to mention, you'll likely get a bit of a discount by having more than one service on the same bill, even after any promotional period has expired. I would also venture to say convenience plays a bigger role as to why these plans are so popular more than price.

Having made the case for bundled packages, what are the advantages of unbundled phone, TV, and Internet services? The answer is cost. Some people just like to pick and choose their services in order to maximize cost effectiveness regardless of having to pay separate bills. To these people cheaper is better, and is worth a little inconvenience. I'm one of these people. Like myself, many broadband phone users find it hard to make a case for bundled packages since a really cheap phone bill can reduce the cost overall, and for me it does, but I have a confession.

I use broadband phone service for both my home, and business phone, but I do have a bundled plan with my cable provider. You see, a bundle simply means more than one service on the same bill. You don't necessarily have to get everything they offer, or choose a preconfigured package for it to qualify as a bundle. I have my cable TV and Internet through the same company, and because I have cable television, I get a discount on their high speed Internet. I also pay only one residential phone bill of $200 a year which gives me unlimited calling all of the time. This configuration makes my elective utilities super cheap.

With competition being what it is, there are lots of ways to get any of these services in your home. For TV there is cable, satellite, fiber optic, or IPTV delivered over fiber from AT&T. For Internet service you can choose from ordinary dialup, to high speed like cable, DSL, fiber optic, or even wireless. Phone service comes in a plethora of flavors as well, including cable phone, landline, VoIP or broadband phone, or cellular. The possibilities, and combinations are almost limitless.