The announcement earlier this month that Verizon in the US would no longer be selling DSL services to new users unless they also purchased a landline garnered strong reactions from the market. Yet the decline in genuinely unbundled broadband services is something the Teligen division of Strategy Analytics has been observing for some time. Data from the March 2012 update of Teligen's Fixed Broadband Price Benchmarking Service reveals that half of all residential fixed broadband packages are bundled, i.e. they are combined with telephony, television or both.

While bundled services typically cost more than unbundled services - in the case of basic triple play options (which include broadband, telephone and television), for example, these cost on average USD20-25 per month more than standalone broadband services - this is not always the case.

One example of this is UPC in Ireland, which charges a premium for broadband that is not purchased as part of a bundle. This means that some bundles service options are cheaper than standalone broadband. A 50 Mb/s standalone service from the provider costs around PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) USD 57 per month, compared to PPP USD 50 for the same service bundled with phone and included minutes. This type of approach is increasingly common, and while it may seem to imply a good deal, it is coercing customer into taking services they might not actually want.

While bundling can work to the customer's advantage from a cost and contract management perspective, it is not always the case, as bundled packages can be inflexible and include elements that are not required but which will have to be paid for. Moreover, as we have highlighted in a previous post, multiplay does not always compare well on price to services purchased singly. Some of our analysis has shown a premium of almost 50% for multiplay as compared to singly purchased services. In such scenarios, it is highly debatable whether the benefits of a single supplier/single bill are sufficient to offset such a significant increase in cost.

From a supplier perspective, bundling makes perfect sense - it increases ARPU, creates greater customer stickiness, and allows greater opportunities for upsell, as well as allowing ISPs to explore new service delivery and pricing models - and this is why we are seeing such an increase in bundled services. Going forward, it will become increasingly difficult to 'just buy broadband', and for those ISPs that offer it, the likelihood is that it will be priced at a premium.

Mila, the wholesale arm of Siminn, the Icelandic incumbent, has made some changes to their digital leased lines prices. The main changes are that the tariffs for lower bandwidths lines have increased, whereas tariffs for higher bandwidths lines have been decreased. Furthermore, new term discounts have been introduced where customers who sign up for 3 years get a 15% discount on monthly rental, 2 year contract gives 10% discount and 1 year discount gives 5% discount.

Details of the tariff changes can be found in T-Basket Fixed and Mobile Voice. Teligen monitors price developments of this sort in its quarterly updates of T-Basket Fixed and Mobile Voice http://sa-link.cc/TBasketFixedandMobileVoice

T-Mobile has introduced two new tariffs to its postpaid customers. Both plans give unlimited calls. At CZK 2000, T-Moble Grand offers CZK 1000 credit plus unlimited calls to T-Mobile and fixed lines. Grand Plus is charged at CZK 3990 per month and allows users to make unlimited calls to any network in the Czech Republic. Messaging is not included in the tariff so is still charged at individual prices.

T-Mobile continues to offer its previous pay monthly plans such as Friends, Top and Credit.

In addition, the operator has unveiled a prepay plan with an emphasis on data. Twist Internet requires a monthly fee of CZK 850, for which users receive a credit of CZ K50 for calls and text messages as well as 5GB of data per month. This tariff offers a price of CZK 7.90 per minute for calls to fixed lines and other operators. Calls to T-Mobile are cheaper and two time bands apply, with off-peak on-net calls costing CZK 3.40 per minute.

Full details of the plans above are available in T-Cellular Online. Teligen monitors price developments of this sort in its continuous updates of T-Cellular Online http://sa-link.cc/3i

The June update of Teligen's mobile broadband benchmarking service, T-Wireless, is barely out of the door, and we are already seeing a lot of activity around new pricing plans, particularly multi-device plans that we have noted in the past as becoming more prevalent. Two that have caught our attention come from mobile providers Movistar in Spain, and Mobistar in Belgium.

In addition to several single device offers from Movistar, SOHO (Autonomos in Spanish) and corporate customers now have the option of connecting two or more devices under a single plan (as yet, the plans are not available to residential subscribers). Tarifa Internet Multidispositivo 25 provides a data allowance of 2 gigabytes, at 7.2 Mb/s for a smartphone and a second device (e.g. tablet, USB modem or other 3G device), for 25 Euros/month, excluding VAT (12.5 Euros for the first six months, under a current promotion running until the end of September). Two further 'Multidisposivitio' options, also covered by the promotion, give a greater monthly data allowance and higher speed - up to 42 Mb/s download - for a higher monthly fee.

Mobistar has gone a step further, and launched offers which allow users to connect more than two devices - a first for the Belgian market. Internet Everywhere Multi Relax gives users a monthly data allowance of 750 megabytes across a PC or tablet plus a smartphone at a cost of 15 Euros/month, under a 12 month subscription. If users sign up online, the allowance is doubled to 1.5 gigabytes, and they also get 3 months subscription free, plus a year's subscription on iPad to the newspaper, Le Soir. If two devices are not enough, however, additional devices can be connected under the same plan, and draw on the same data allowance for an additional 3 Euros/month/device. A second plan, Internet Everywhere Multi Max, is structured similar to Multi Relax, but offers a higher data allowance for a higher monthly fee - although the data allowance is not increased for users signing up online for this option. Both Mobistar plans are available to all residential and SOHO subscribers, irrespective of their current tariff plan.

Multi-device plans are clearly 'en vogue' at the moment, and quite rightly so, as users increasingly rely on more than one device as they go about their daily lives, but remain resistant to signing up for multiple data plans which quickly becomes very costly. We expect many more of these plans to surface going forwards, and we will be tracking them closely, both within T-Wireless and as part of our ongoing reporting.