Understanding bundles offered by high-speed Internet service providers

By David Strom

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The cable and phone companies now promise even more confusion with their pricing with what they are calling "triple play." In baseball, a triple play is usually something bad for the team at bat, but in the world of the Internet, it is supposed to save you money by purchasing all of your services from one communications company. That is the theory.

The good news is that you can generally save money from having all of your communications coming from one source, and save time by paying one bill versus dealing with multiple bills from multiple companies. You also don't have to make as many decisions about particular features too. The bad news is that there is copious fine print to read, and the prices could change after the introductory period (typically one year) expires.

The three services that are usually part of the triple play for the cable companies are cable TV service (usually the higher-priced digital cable with some on-demand and premium channels), digital voice, and high-speed Internet access. Typically, the cable companies charge $100 a month for all three for the first year of service for new customers only. Once the year is up, the price jumps up to $150 or even higher a month, so over the long term this isn't much of a bargain and can be expensive. If you are an existing cable TV customer, you might be eligible for other discounts that could also save you money on a year's bills. Here is one example from Cablevision.

Some of the cable companies offer more expensive plans depending on how many premium TV channels you select and whether you want to subscribe to their on-demand channels too. This is one of the bigger benefits of the bundles: the more you spend, the more you potentially save.

There are two downsides of using cable companies' bundles. First, their digital voice plans have somewhat limited features when you compare what Vonage and other digital voice vendors offer. If these features are important to you, then don't go with the triple-play plans. If all you care about is basic phone service, then the bundles are a good deal. Second, if you need customer support, you might have to talk to specialists in each particular service area.

In the end, though, you need to determine your budget, and compare the costs of buying the various services separately to what is offered in the bundles. It could save you a bundle of money.