September 28, 2006 | posted by Michael Baxter in Uncategorized |

Four services, forty pounds, NTL has launched its quadruple play service, or as Sir Richard Branson once referred to it, Four Pay.

For forty pounds a month, customers can have 2 megabits per second broadband, 30 channels of TV, fixed line telephony and a Virgin mobile SIM.

Neil Berkett, chief operating officer of NTL Telewest, said: “Quadplay demonstrates the unique power of the Cable-Virgin Mobile union and this is just the beginning. Our new package represents unbeatable value while meeting a wide range of consumers’ entertainment and communication needs”.

We noticed with interest that one of the services being offered is the facility to install broadband by an expert. As broadband, computer hardware, and telephony increasingly look like commodities, technical support is fast becoming the way players can differentiate themselves. DSG recently announced its Tech Guys service - and BT too has been making lots of noises in this area.

The NTL four pay service has its critics, they say that families make decisions about which broadband, TV and fixed line telephone company to use, while the choice of mobile service is an individual decision. In any case, goes the argument, Virgin Mobile’s customers are typically less upmarket, and less likely to determine the family decision about broadband supplier (in other words, Virgin has more kids as customers).

On the other hand, TV transmitted over mobile phones is expected to be the big thing next year, and economies of scale in Four Pay will exist in content production. And in the new Internet and mobile phone TV era, content really will be king.

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