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About the authors
Russell Shaw Russell Shaw is a specialist in mobile computing, telephony, networking and covers these fields regularly for numerous print and online publications. Russ writes the popular IP Telephony blog on ZDNet and contributes regularly to The Industry Standard blog as well. Author of seven books, Russ' latest book is Wireless Networking Made Easy.
John Yunker John Yunker is president of Byte Level Research. He closely tracks emerging wireless technologies and their impact on consumers and carriers alike. Over the years he has written a number of major reports on technologies such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX and cellular technologies.
About this blog
Unwired studies emerging wireless technologies and how they complement and conflict with one another. Technologies covered include: Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Ultra-Wideband, Zigbee, EV-DO, UMTS, HSDPA and whatever else comes along.
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August 16, 2004

Bundled Devices, Bundled Services and Falling Prices

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Posted by John Yunker

T-Mobile is pre-promoting the HP IPAQ h6315, arguably the mother of all bundled devices. It packs Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPRS into one handheld device. There are countless articles out already about this device (pictured below), but what I'm most intrigued about is not the bundling of features but the bundling of services.

iPAQ_h6300.jpg

T-Mobile will naturally offer a bundled service that combines voice, Internet (GPRS and Wi-Fi) and email. The device will cost $500 but T-Mobile hasn't announced a service price yet. Some say the price will be similar to the rate that Verizon Wireless charges for its EV-DO service: $80/month. This would certainly be the safe way for T-Mobile to proceed; after all, there are thousands of early adopters out there chomping at the bit to try this thing (I'm chomping but I'm also cheap, so I'll be a holdout).

A bolder pricing move would be $60/month or less. This would amount to a savings for subscribers who currently pay for cellular at roughly $50/month plus another $20/month for Wi-Fi. A $60/month or less fee would further drive down the perceived cost of Wi-Fi. At $60/month, Wi-Fi would appear to cost around $10/month, making it the best deal going, not only in the US, but globally.

Bundling is now the rage among carriers of all stripes -- from cable to cellular. As more devices ship bundled with Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi will become increasingly bundled with services, and at lower and lower monthly rates.

Comments (0) | Category: Big Picture | Cellular | Wi-Fi



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