Verizon is actively promoting the quadruple play.  The quadruple play is a marketing term that describes the bundling of broadband Internet access, cable television programming, POTS, and wireless.  By providing discounts to wireless customer who don’t have the traditional wireline (landline) service but opt for Internet access or television programming (via the company’s FiOS service) Verizon has proactively begun the process of transforming itself into a full fledged media company.

Verizon is going to begin looking and sounding less like a telecom company and begin sounding like a media and information services company.  We are seeing the beginning of the next generation of telecom services.  There has been an emerging wireless trend since the 1980s.  I was there during the early days and I recall how low and then high we had set our sights.

Cellular telephone calls were not supposed to be of a quality level equal to or superior to that of landline telephone calls.

Cellular service was not supposed to have caller ID or even conference calling.  Video was unheard of and the Internet did not exist.  I remember the industry arguments of how cellular service was suppose to offer fewer features than landline.

Wireless industry veterans will remember how we used to tell people that at some point customers would begin disconnecting their wireline telephones and opt to use their wireless.  We had predicted that as soon as roaming fees either dropped in price drastically or were eliminated all together, some customers would opt to use their cell phones only.  I recall how wireline (landline) telephone company folks publicly ridiculed wireless guys like me for holding such opinions.

In the late 1990s, cellular carriers began deploying Internet access.  Even then, after all that had transpired there were naysayers who said that the cellular carriers would never be able to support Internet access like a landline based network.

In 2004, Sprint PCS(NYS:S) (now just Sprint) launched the first wireless video services in the United States.  Up until that moment, wireless video was a distant dream.  The suddenly everything changed over night.  Now wireless carriers carried entertainment.

In 2008, the wireless carriers are promoting wireless Internet, music, video, interactivity, point of sale transactions, and banking.

In a year or two, cellular carriers are going to be called wireless service providers in the fullest sense of the term.  As service providers they will be supporting a broad range of commerce and financial transactions.

Here is an interesting thought.  The wireless carriers may begin walking that fine line of television broadcaster.  Would it not be interesting to see the wireless carriers having to broadcast news and public service announcements?  However, since it is an opt in service I doubt the wireless carriers will be classified as broadcasters.

What is the trend?  I see the emergence of the full service carrier or multi-play carrier.

The obstacles to this occurring are: lack of a long term sustainable revenue model and the associated pricing model.

Lack of a revenue model that will satisfy advertisers, creative artists, content owners, and the cellular carriers.  The current model makes just enough money to keep all of the parties interested in trying to work it out.  Read my past analyses “The Entertainment Industry and The Telecom Industry – How Do You Make Money Now?” and “The Writers Strike – Can Amateur Video Fill the Gap – YouTube To The Rescue?”.

Some people have disagreed (loudly disagreeing with me but they were production company owners who don’t want to pay the artists more money) with me regarding the current revenue model.  However, if you look at the contracts agreed to by the Writers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America, and Producers Guild of America you will see that they now all of substantial clauses for online and wireless media content royalties.  The Screen Actors Guild is currently negotiating new terms as well.  Now that the folks who make and own the content are actively participating in the revenue stream, the studios can forego the need to rely on dipping into their vaults.  Yes it is true the studios will keep dipping into it but you know at some point one studio will simply make straight to online video for the online viewers and wireless viewers.  There has been some of that already but frankly the video could have been better and it would have been if the parties were encouraged to pour more money into it.

A pricing model will eventually have to be developed to give all parties their respective pieces of the action.

Financial transaction models now exist.  It is just a matter of getting them integrated into the overall marketplace.  Banks and retail chains do not need convincing to use the wireless handset for business transactions.  Bankers especially smell the money.  See my analysis entitled, “Mobile/Wireless Banking – Money Transfers Have Arrived”, “The Cell Phone – The Mobile Wallet Has Arrived”, and “Wachovia(NYS:WB) - After M-Banking (Mobile Banking), the M-Wallet (Mobile Wallet) Will Be Right Around the Corner”.

At the end of the day we are seeing a paradigm shift in the carrier community.