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Vodafone's failed TV ambitions are costing it dearly
Vodafone once had aspirations to become the next quad-play provider, able to offer its customers more than just a mobile phone contract. For nearly two years, the company was preparing to enter the pay-TV market, and in the interim it rejoined the broadband arena with its Connect service. With growth in this competitive space sluggish, however, it decided to abandon its pay-TV plans. But the problem with shutting down a project that could've launched "within weeks," according to CEO Vittorio Colao, is that it's still burning a hole in Vodafone's bank account.
Vodafone abandons its pay-TV plans
In a fairly predictable move, Vodafone has said it's all but deserted plans to launch a pay-TV service in the UK. The company has barely touched on its televisual ambitions since announcing in spring 2015 that it expected to have something ready before the end of that year. As The Telegraph reports, the project was beset by development delays and difficulty hashing out a deal to carry BT's sports channels. Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said that although the pay-TV service was now at a stage where it could be launched "within weeks," the company has decided to put its plans on indefinite hiatus.
BT gets back into mobile with a trio of SIM-only 4G plans
It's already been quite the week for the UK's mobile battleground, with Three UK's owner Hutchison Whampoa announcing its plan to acquire O2 for a cool £10 billion. And today, confirming recent rumours, BT is ready to re-enter mobile ten years after offloading its shares in O2 and getting out of the game. BT is pursuing its own, mammoth acquisition of EE, of course, but while it waits on regulatory approval, it's tapping EE's network under an MVNO agreement penned way back in 2013. BT is now part of the quad-play club, and like fellow members Virgin Media and TalkTalk, it's going after the price-conscious consumer with a trio of SIM-only plans.
TalkTalk buys Tesco's Blinkbox and broadband services
It's been a long time coming, but Tesco has finally offloaded its loss-making streaming service Blinkbox. At the end of the last year, it looked increasingly likely that TalkTalk has positioned itself as the favourite to buy the service, and today the quad-play provider confirmed a deal has been reached. According to TalkTalk, Blinkbox's integration with its existing TV business will "begin immediately," with the benefits of the merger expected to show themselves by the end of the year.
Sky could soon launch its own mobile network with help from Vodafone
When BT finally gets round to launching its own-brand mobile network running on EE's 4G infrastructure, it'll join Virgin Media and TalkTalk as a provider of all four main telecoms services: TV, internet, fixed-line telephone and mobile. This would leave Sky as the only rival telecoms company without a mobile offering, but a new trial with Vodafone suggests it, too, could be adding mobile to its product portfolio in the near future. As Mobile Today reports, 200,000 allegedly "handpicked" Sky customers were offered Vodafone's services as part of trial launched last month. It's not unreasonable, then, to hypothesize that this is the preliminary stages of Sky launching its own MVNO based on Vodafone's network.
TalkTalk to join the exclusive 'quad-play' club... sort of
Earlier this year, Virgin Media became the UK's first 'quad-play' provider, meaning it began offering one-bill bundles that include all four of its services: mobile, landline, broadband and TV. Soon enough, however, TalkTalk will be joining Virgin Media in the exclusive quad-play club. Well... not really, but close enough. Come December, any TalkTalk customers on the Plus TV package (which includes landline and broadband subscriptions) will get a free mobile SIM that includes 100 minutes, 250 texts and 200MB of 3G data each month. Existing customers can also pre-register for a SIM right now if they want it as soon as possible. TalkTalk will technically be offering four services in one when the free SIM deal launches, but is it a true 'quad-play' package when you can't choose your tariff, and you don't actually pay for the mobile element? Nevermind, let's not argue over semantics. A free SIM is a free SIM.
Virgin Media's 'quad-play' phone, TV and net bundles now available to all
Virgin Media launched the UK's first 'quad-play' packages earlier this month, which wrap all of its mobile, landline, broadband and TV services up into neat, pay-monthly bundles. These were only available for existing customers to upgrade to initially, but right on schedule, new customers can now get in on the action, too. Furthermore, there are two additional "Big Bundles," as they're called, that complement the £35 per month Big Bang and £50 per month Big Kahuna packages (excluding line rental) Virgin announced previously. The new entry-level Big Easy bundle starts at £25 per month, and for those that need the absolute fastest, biggest and best of everything, the Big Daddy package can be had for £100 per month (again, both prices exclude line rental). You can also create your own custom bundle by bolting "Big Extras" onto the standard ones, if getting everything from the same provider and on one bill is just that little bit too simple for your taste.
Virgin Media bundles mobile, landline, TV and broadband into new 'quad-play' packages
Virgin Media has operated as a virtual mobile operator for some time now, but had never combined smartphone plans into the cost of its TV, phone and broadband deals. That's all about to change, however, after the company confirmed today it will launch a new range of bundles that will form the first true 'quad-play' packages in the UK. The packages will start at £35 with a mobile SIM (also excluding line rental) and are marketed under names like Big Kahuna and Big Bang. You'll get unlimited calls and texts but not data -- that's only applicable to VIP Tariffs, which do not come as part of the new bundles. Before today, it looked like BT was going to become the first provider to go all in, after it signed a deal with EE to provide connectivity for its own-brand 4G network. While the telecommunications giant is expected to roll out consumer packages later this year (returning to the mobile industry after it sold Cellnet back in 2001), it will now come to market some time after one of its major rivals. It could even be pipped to the post by Sky, which is rumoured to be exploring a deal with Vodafone. Virgin's quad-play packages are now available to existing customers and will roll out to the rest of the UK in June.
Time Warner and Verizon begin selling bundled packages just to annoy regulators
Verizon's special relationship with the cable houses deepened yesterday as it started to sell bundled mobile and land-line packages with Time Warner Cable, like it does with Comcast. Residents in various parts of Ohio, Kansas City and Raleigh, North Carolina can sign up and receive a $200 prepaid debit card as a reward for their custom. However, the partnership is raising regulatory concerns about Big Red's business practices, with the Justice Department weighing up if they're anti-competitive. Worse still, the FCC has yet to ratify that $3.6 billion spectrum deal, meaning that both parties could still be off to the tailors to be fitted for a federal lawsuit.
Verizon FiOS offers triple- or quad-play customers in Florida free 500GB DVRs
Verizon's adding some juice to its triple- and quad-play FiOS TV bundles in the state of Florida, offering Bucs fans its new 500GB QIP7232 multiroom DVR from Motorola for free (normally $19.99) as long as they'll sign up for home phone and maybe mobile phone service as well. The discount applies as long as customers hang onto the bundled service which ranges from $99.99 to $129.99, plus any mobile service charges. Combine this with the still-being-previewed software upgrade to turn on a new UI, multiroom DVR browsing and external storage, and while it probably won't cause anyone to toss a Media center setup or TiVo Premiere aside, it's certainly worth a look if you were already considering bundling services anyway. Check the press release after the break.
AT&T and DirecTV launch partnership, offer up quad-play bundle
AT&T joined up with DirecTV for TV services months ago, but the partnership is now retail-official, and AT&T reps should be fully versed in how bundling services can save you some dough. What's really interesting, however, is the "quad-play" that the new partnership is offering over cable by adding wireless service to the TV/phone/internet trio. In this arms race that threatens to catch up the blades-per-razor contest, expect to see connections between content on your TV, PC and cell phone in the future (assuming you're in a market that receives all four services). Sounds like echoes of Homezone all over again, doesn't it? Of course, cable has similar plans in the works, especially cable companies that picked up some space from last year's 700MHz auction; but still, a first is a first.[Thanks, Vanbrothers]Read - AT&T selling DirecTV Read - AT&T/DirecTV quad-play
Cox to enter cellphone biz, link handsets to other cable-related services
We know, you're just dying to say this is a complete shock, but we're here to inform you that it's not. If you'll recall, Cox dug deep to snatch up a decent block of spectrum in this year's 700MHz auction, and it even went so far as to promise a differentiated product that would eventually integrate with its other content and services. Sure enough, it's keeping its word. After spending $500 million on wireless capacity in its markets, president Pat Esser says it's time to turn things on. By relying on Cox's own 3G network (along with Sprint's, initially), the carrier will offer up an undisclosed amount of handsets that will "include a network address book that automatically synchronizes with home PCs" and allow remote programming of one's DVR. Furthermore, users will be able to access e-mail and voicemail that they receive at home right on their mobile, and ideally, subscribers could watch TV shows right on their handsets. Get ready for an awkward new rival in the wireless space beginning, um, anytime now.
Cable companies drop Pivot, break up with Sprint Nextel
Wow, it looks like someone was listening when we said that Pivot wasn't going anywhere just an hour ago -- Comcast, Time Warner (Engadget's parent company) and Cox have all confirmed to the AP that they've backed out of the quad-play partnership, leaving Sprint alone to awkwardly hang out with Advance / Newhouse, which declined to comment. That must be a fun party. Of course, this also means both of the partnerships Sprint and Big Cable got into have now failed, but that doesn't mean the competition in the space is over: both Time Warner and Cox say wireless is still in the cards for their companies, but Pivot was just too complicated a venture. Comcast hasn't said anything yet, but promised a comment tomorrow sometime between 7AM and 11PM.
