Is All-In-One Cable/Phone/Internet/Wireless a good idea?

Your parents. or grandparents, used to say. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” What does that mean? Back in the days of the depression, banks lost a lot of money. There was no guaranty of bank accounts as there is now. That means if you have up to $100,000 in an account, the federal government will replace it if the bank goes out of business. If you did not have this, and the bank went out of business, you would lose all your money. I know it seems this has nothing to do with the title here, but hang on with me, and you’ll see how it all comes together.

So, because of the chance of loss, you were encouraged to keep your money in different banks, split it up. Good investment advisors will also tell you to have diversity. That way, if these stocks go down, those go up and make up for it. You must diversify your investments, or there will be a chance of loss. You must also look at it from a management standpoint, as well. You may want to do something with one of your accounts, but maybe the manager of that account doesn’t like your idea. The manager of another account may work with you. There will always be differences in management and communication.

That brings us back to the topic here. There has been a push to get you to consolidate all of your services into one company. They want you to put your cable, phone, internet, and wireless service on one bill, and get all your business. This all started with a battle between phone and cable. Cable TV got so popular, but people decided they didn’t like the selection and service so satellite came along. The first satellite dishes were huge, and best if you had a ranch or just wanted to show off. Then they came out with the little 18″ dishes and all of a sudden everyone wanted them.

Television

Why the big battle between cable and satellite? Each one had a different selection and quality. In fact, there were 3 main companies for satellite service, two of which used the small dishes. They kept telling you how it was good to have the variety and availability, if you were someplace where cable was not too good. Now, the two small dish providers have combined, so your selection and competition is gone. That means prices are not controlled by competition, and they can offer whatever service they want. You still have cable though, right?

People don’t realize that cable providers work under a different set of requirements than other providers. That means they have to pay extra franchise fees, provide certain services to cities and public access television, and be careful of monopolizing the marketplace if other services are available. That means they pay more into the pot. The state of California is now controlling that and changing it to make cable providers more competitive. This also means that you will eventually lose your public access stations because satellite providers are not required to provide those services. Your voice will be gone soon.

Telephone

Phone service has competition as well. You can use VoIP such as Vonage, or you can use cell phone home service through T-Mobile, or regular phone service, or over your cable service. In Europe, they have more open access to satellite phone at reasonable prices if you live in remote places. You can have any local or long distance service you wish, as long as they are in your area. The competition has heated up, and has brought rates down, services up, and awareness is more important.

Remember when Pacific Bell was broken up into Baby Bells? That is because the phone company had you locked in, and you had no right to change service for better price or quality. Once the phone companies were broken up, companies like MCI came in and took the cream accounts from the phone company and some messed things up. The damage was done, and people were taken. Eventually things got better, so now we have a variety of services available, which is a good thing.

Internet Access

How about internet services? It used to be dial up with AOL or Compuserve. Then along came budget providers like Earthlink, Surfari, TCSN, Net Zero, Digital Putty, and others. Everyone wanted you to use their service to get on the internet. AOL and Compuserve merged, Earthlink bought up several smaller companies, and some have gone out of business. Others like Digital Putty are still in business because they have a niche such as wireless access for ranches, etc. Both cable and phone claim to have faster services, which is true when compared to dial up. 

What is the difference between phone and cable internet access? Throughput. You can find out more about this here and see what I am talking about. The closer you are to the terminal, the better your service. You cannot get as good service if you are in a remote area, so the numbers they provide you are ideal in the best location. You cannot guaranty which one is going to do better for you. 

Wireless Service

That brings us to your wireless access. I am going to get a plug in for Sprint. Hey, ATT And Verizon are all over, why Sprint? THAT is the main reason for Sprint or T-Mobile. They may play catch up every now and then, but they are more progressive and creative. Did you know that the cell phone you have right now is capable of so much more than what ATT and Verizon provide? That same phone in Japan has many more functions. Verizon and ATT dumb them down so you only have certain functions available. That means all these good things like GPS, music, and many other functions are way behind.

Companies like Sprint and T-Mobile are more likely to have these available for you. You should be upset with your wireless phone service provider now. Am I sure that all these providers can provide these services for you? Yep. When you leave your service area and are roaming, you can still access most of these services, right? That means the system does support these services and there is no reason they should not be able to provide them to you. It is because of their choice. Some might even believe these companies have decided this together, but that might be monopoly, price fixing, or collusion. The government wouldn’t like that if they found out it was true.

You can get a USB modem to use wireless internet. That’s right, you can get wireless (not wifi, true wireless) access anywhere you can get cellphone service. What is the difference? If you are on ATT, they give you wifi access at certain physical locations, right? That is only wifi. When you leave the location, you have no more service. This is how they control you. The USB modem I have allows me to have internet access anywhere there is phone service. Why doesn’t your phone provider tell you about this? So they can get you to lock in to their combo service at home. Let’s get back to that later.

Combo Services

So, now that you see the individual elements, what is the problem with having everything in one contract? 

Wait, do you really have to ask that question after reading above? If so, you need to read it all again. I’ll wait here until you are done.

Still clueless? Let me put it down here for you. Each of these services have a history of change and improvement. Up to now, you have been smart and taken your services from the companies that provided what you wanted, how you wanted it, and for the price you were willing to pay. That means if a company changed services, quality, or cost, you could move your service as soon as your contract was up. Oh, and about those contracts, the state of California has determined that early termination fees are not legal in a case against Sprint (the first one to be attacked). Not surprisingly, Verizon has just settled a similar case and agreed to pay millions of dollars back. I expect ATT and T-Mobile to do the same soon.

Why do they lock you in? To keep you from going to competition. They don’t want you to be able to jump ship when better service or more service is available for you. They keep you locked in. That is why they also made it impossible for you to take your landline (regular phone) number with you, but now they are made to allow you to migrate your phone number. 

If they can lock you in to service, their competitors have less chance to survive. However, if each one has an equal market share, nobody wins. They just dilute the market. That means you get all your services from one place.

Marketing the Combo Plans

Now they are marketing certain “benefits” to you. For instance, one advertises that you get the same selection as DirectTV. Another one tells you that it is best to have all your services under one bill. Is this true? Are the prices really better? They market introductory pricing and make you think that if you combine everything you get a good deal. Is this true?

What about selection from DirectTV? Why not get it directly, instead of through a third party? Are they offering you a better price? They will get discounted pricing from DirectTV but do they pass that along to you? Compare price before you commit. I suggest you contact ALL service providers and ask them how much each service costs and do the math yourself. You may find that your pricing will be similar or slightly more. Why not save a few bucks and get the combo? Let’s look at pricing.

Pricing Services

You will find introductory pricing. You will find them wanting to put you on automatic payments. You will find them promising you adjustments and incentives to get you to sign up. They may even offer you better deals than advertised. You should check the websites to see what kind of deals they offer there. Sometimes they have better deals online. They also introduce new plans or incentives there. They try to get you to take care of business online so they do not have to spend so much on personal service. That’s right, they save money by pushing you off to an automated service.

Not only should you check pricing, you should also check what they are charging you for. For instance, if you sign up for cell phone service online and they want to charge you for shipping, tell them you would rather go to the store and pick it up there rather than pay for shipping. Tell them you will sign up at the store instead, and they will likely take off the shipping charge or give you a credit for it. Do this to compare internet plans and products, also. Often times they will match the price on the website if they have the same products available.

The important thing is that you be informed. Write down all the pricing and programs you find. Tell each one what you have found with the other service, and let them WORK to get your service. Don’t sign up for them just because your friends are on their system. Get the best deal you can get and shop smart.

What About When You Are Not Happy?

Let’s say you sign up for all your services together, but decide you don’t like the internet service because it is not what they promised. Tough luck. You are now locked in to their service. That means if you love everything else, but don’t like the variety on your TV, you either have to pay more for another plan, or you are stuck with what you have. Too bad. That is one reason you don’t want to have all your services together. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If one of the eggs is bad, you may not want the rest of them. 

If you have any financial problems, such as losing a job or other hardship, it’s not like you can just cancel one part of it and reduce costs. If you decide to do without TV for a while, or perhaps you have children now and don’t want to have them influenced with bad shows on TV, you cannot just get rid of your TV service. You are stuck. Did you ever think of reasons you may want to change service? What if you want to change internet providers because another one has better service? Tough luck. What if your friends changed over to Sprint and you want to have free calling to them? Too bad, you’re stuck.

So as you can see, it can be a problem to have everything under one bill. They tell you it is easier to pay that way with one bill. That is a bunch of BS. With automatic payments available through your bank account or credit card, you don’t have to think about it again (as long as you have the money available). The advantage is that you can now change plans or drop plans without having to renew everything. What about when you want a new cell phone? You may want to replace it in 2 years when your contract is up so you can get a free phone. You may want to increase the number of hours you have available before your plan is up. If so, you may have to renew everything just to change your hours. Not good.

What If Something Better Comes Along?

You are stuck. Don’t even bother shopping around for 2 years. That is how long you will likely be stuck in your plan. By signing up for these services under one plan, you kill competition, lock yourself in, and kill flexability in your life. Technology changes every few months. New services are constantly coming available. I do not suggest you lock in to one of these package or combo deals, as you never know what the future holds. Don’t get locked into something old when something new comes along.

Summary

I implore you to not give in to these plans. You need to shop around and protect yourself. Make sure you are getting the best plan for your lifestyle, not the best plan for their profits. You can save money by shopping, and save headaches down the line. Don’t get stuck in one plan when you may have financial issues, especially the way today’s economy is going. If you fail to pay something, you lose it all. Can you afford to lose it all? That is what I say happens when you give up your freedom to choose, your freedom to variety, your freedom of individuality. Think about it, and shop smart.

The Opinionator