LUKE KEHOE
  • Home
  • Fixed
    • Exploring the Edge and the Future of a Decentralised Internet
    • Messing with the National Broadband Plan is a perilous precedent for Ireland
    • How Fibre is shaping 5G
    • Examining the viability of FWA in the 5G Era
    • The Changing Face of Broadband in Ireland
    • Dismantling the Optics of a National Broadband Plan fraught with trouble
    • Ireland's Gigabit Society is now within an arm's reach
    • The Merits of a Hybrid Broadband Network
    • Fibre: The Electricity of Tomorrow
    • The National Broadband Plan: Needlessly corrupted by Politics
    • Investigating the alternatives to Fibre Broadband in Ireland
    • Virgin Media: The Company that changed how we think about Broadband in Ireland
    • The Evolution of Quad-Play Services
    • An Analysis of Net Neutrality in Ireland: Why we are Particularly Vulnerable to its Eradication
    • The Best Mobile Broadband Plans in Ireland
    • eir: Few Companies have this much Potential
    • The National Broadband Plan: A Dream marred by Mistakes
    • How SIRO is revolutionising Ireland
    • The Best Fibre Broadband Only Plans
  • Mobile
    • Analysis: Vodafone goes unlimited in Ireland
    • A Breath of Fresh Eir
    • Understanding VoLTE: The Voice of Tomorrow
    • Your Technical Guide to WiFi Calling in Ireland.
    • Mapping Ireland and Europe's path to 5G
    • 5G and the Divide Divide haunting Ireland
    • Busting three myths thwarting the IoT
    • The MVNO model is ripe for disruption
    • Pest Pulse is using the IoT to tackle an old problem in a new way
    • The trends that will shape Ireland's Mobile Market in 2019
    • Mobile Coverage and Ireland: Not a Match
    • An Interview with the man building Ireland's largest IoT Network: Will Ferguson
    • The State of the IoT in Ireland
    • The Struggle to Monetise Data
    • In Ireland, Huawei finds a home with Three and eir, rebelling against "Security Concerns"
    • Revealed: The Irish Network with the Best 4G Coverage 2018
    • How are we tackling Coverage Black Spots in Ireland?
    • Breaking Down ComReg's latest Report on the Irish Mobile Market
    • The Shift from Growth to Retention in the Irish Telecoms Market
    • Five Challenges that the IoT is facing
    • Why ComReg is Vital for a Successful Telecoms Industry in Ireland
    • Tesco Mobile passes 400,000 Customers and adds 4G
    • How our Mobile Providers are facilitating surging Data Traffic
    • Eight Industries that are being transformed by Sigfox
    • Vodafone Review: The Best Network in Ireland keeps getting Better
    • Why will 5G be faster than 4G?
    • Is Xavier Niel on the verge of shaking up the Irish Mobile Market with Eir
    • Eir overhauls its mobile plans, giving customers more data than ever
    • NB-IoT Explained: The Technology that Vodafone hopes will connect everything
    • The MVNO Flop: Why Ireland's MVNOs have failed to make an impact
    • Explained: Why Telecoms and Media Giants are Merging
    • The Power of Sigfox: Pioneering the IoT Revolution
    • Vodafone Ireland launches "V by Vodafone", bringing the Internet of Things to the masses
    • The IoT Revolution: Connecting Everything
    • The Unlimited Delusion: When Unlimited means Limited
    • The Best Mobile Plans for your Business
    • The Best Bill Pay Plans in Ireland
    • The Best Pay as you go Plans in Ireland
    • Was the Three-O2 Merger a Mistake?
    • The State of Irish Mobile Networks: Summer 2018
    • Vodafone killed Cherry Points: A Mistake?
    • Here's how 5G will transform Ireland
    • Three just stormed past Eir
    • An analysis of Ireland's big three Mobile Networks
    • How Cheap can our Mobile Plans Get?
    • Net Neutrality: More than the Internet is at stake
    • Here's why Vodafone's pay as you go plans are the best out there.
    • iD Mobile's Demise is hardly a surprise
    • The Battle for 5G Supremacy
    • Unlimited Data is only as good as the Network it's on.
  • Reviews
    • eir Mobile Review: Not the Network to choose in 2018
    • Invoxia GPS Tracker Review: Elegance boasts Phenomenal Battery Life
    • Three Review: The Best Value Network in Ireland
    • Sennheiser AMBEO Smart Headset Review:
    • Vodafone TV Review: Redefining what we think of TV
    • Vodafone Mobile Broadband Review: Connecting the Disconnected
    • 3Plus Review: The Best Loyalty Program Out There
    • 3 Sim Only Review: World-Class Value
    • Tesco Mobile Review: The Best network for the Frugal
    • Three Review: All you can Eat Buffering
    • Vodafone Review: The Network to Beat
    • Meteor Review: Excellence Exemplified
    • Should Virgin Media be your next Mobile Network?
    • Samsung Galaxy S8: The Pinnacle of Smartphone Advancement
    • Huawei P10: The Best phone people don't know about
    • Vodafone Smart Platinum 7.
    • Vodafone Smart Prime 7.

The Evolution of Quad-Play Services

With declining revenues, Internet Service Providers need to find new ways of attracting customers and lowering their churn rate.
Picture
Credit: Design Week
Published 21/08/18
​Over the last number of years, an obvious trend has slowly percolated into the Irish communications market. That trend involves combining multiple services under one bill from a single company. Communications providers that previously specialised in providing a specific service have diversified their business model, and in a sense, put their eggs in many baskets. This trend is known as triple and quad-play, combing mobile, broadband, TV (and landline).

There are multiple examples of companies shifting towards these consolidated services in Ireland. Vodafone, Virgin Media, Sky and eir have all beefed up their triple and quad-play offerings in recent years. In each case, a company has launched a new service to lower their churn rate and tighten their grip on existing customers.

​For example, Vodafone has historically prioritised mobile over everything else, but the company recently launched its own TV service, Vodafone TV, to coincide with new broadband offerings. Virgin Media became an MVNO following Three's merger with O2 in 2015 and has managed to sign up thousands of existing broadband customers to the mobile plans. Then, there's eir, who is undoubtedly the king of quad-play in Ireland. The company has developed its own sports channels, free for existing customers, bundles a TV service with broadband and has a sizeable mobile subscriber base.

Why Quad-Play?

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Credit: TechPP
For companies such as Vodafone and eir, having customers paying for multiple services is extremely lucrative. Not only are they earning more revenue, they can also lock those customers into their services for an extended period of time. Think about it this way, when you receive all of your services from one company, it will be more difficult to leave that company for a competitor. So, even if you see a competitor offering better prices, you may decide to stick with your existing provider because of the fear of change.

If you're a communications provider, the churn rate will be an important statistic that will give some clues as to the "stickiness" of your service. For those offering quad-play, the churn rate will be lower, meaning fewer people are switching to a different provider.

Another benefit of providing quad-play which may not be immediately obvious is the increased amount of data that these providers will gain about people's usage. For example, they will learn about TV viewership trends and use this to enhance their offerings.

eir dominates the Irish Quad-Play Market

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Credit: Broadband TV News
​I want to use the example of eir to explain the benefits of quad-play for providers. As you probably know, eir is the largest broadband provider in this country, giving them tremendous leverage over how they distribute content. The company purchased Setanta Sports and rebranded the channels to eir sport in 2016. If you're an eir broadband or bill pay mobile customer, you can enjoy eir sport for free. Furthermore, you can stream these sports channels on your phone without them eating into your data allowance if you're an eir mobile customer. Moving your services to Vodafone or any other company will result in you losing access to eir sport unless you pay €20 monthly.

Eir's broadband network serves as the method of delivering other services such as eir Vision TV. The company has also launched its own challenger to Sky Movies with eir Movies, providing access to on-demand content. Eir's broadband network acts as the conveyor belt used to deliver more services to customers. As well as this, eir's recently revamped bill pay and sim only plans offer a discount of €10 every month to existing broadband customers, making customers more likely to choose eir for mobile as well as broadband. Moreover, eir mobile customers can avail of WiFi Calling, however, they must access an eir WiFi network to utilise the feature.

I should also mention Sky, the most popular paid-TV service in Ireland. The company has expanded its offerings in the broadband market, and it is now the fastest growing broadband provider in Ireland. Sky offers its existing TV customers the choice of adding broadband to their plan at a discounted price. Sky's push into the broadband market perfectly complements the introduction of their new TV box, Sky Q, which utilises a broadband connection to stream on-demand content. While the company offers triple-play in Ireland, combining TV, Broadband and landline, they have become an MVNO in the UK also.

Virgin Media has slowly expanded its services in Ireland, now offering mobile, broadband, TV and landline. If you're a Virgin Media broadband customer, you can add mobile for excellent discounts. The company has managed to use its existing pool of broadband customers to boost its mobile base. Virgin's TV service is second only to Sky in terms of subscriptions, and it has played a key role in ensuring customers stick with Virgin Media. We also need to talk about the company's acquisition and rebranding of TV3. Many sports matches which were previously free to view will now become exclusive to Virgin's broadband customers.

Finally, let's investigate Vodafone. The company recently began to offer family plans, where bringing three or more customers under one bill from Vodafone provides a discount of more than €20 each month overall. Vodafone TV is a streaming TV service which uses Vodafone's broadband network to deliver channels. If you're a Vodafone mobile customer, you can stream TV on the Vodafone TV Anywhere app without it eating into your data allowance.

Benefits for Consumers

Picture
Credit: Sky
A factor that plays a major role when choosing a service is the price. Generally, bundling three or four services with one company allows you to earn steep discounts. As I've explained above, certain services are unique to customers who opt for a triple or quad-play bundle. Furthermore, when you bundle multiple services with one company, you will be given the opportunity to seamlessly transition between each service in the company's ecosystem. This goes a long way to improve customer's satisfaction with their service. Think of the example I outlined earlier about WiFi Calling for eir Mobile customers being available with eir broadband only.

Another important benefit that quad-play provides consumers is simplicity. There is just one bill, one customer care team, and one website/store. This makes resolving issues significantly easier. Furthermore, customers who pay for multiple services from one company will likely receive priority customer care, because they are of more value to the company.

Drawbacks for Consumers

While quad-play provides many benefits, it also has its own fair share of drawbacks. The primary of which being is the difficulty for a company to be a jack of all trades. When a company provides quad-play, their resources will be shared between each service. eir's broadband network is obviously the company's most valuable asset, requiring more investment than its TV service, leading to a sub-par experience for that service. Put simply, when a company specialises in one area, they will produce a more refined product. Vodafone's mobile network is class-leading, whereas Sky's TV offering is arguably the best on the market. So, when you choose one company for four services, not all of those services will be the best there is out there individually.

You probably expected to read this, but, accessing all of your services from one company can make you more susceptible to large faults. If you pay for quad-play from eir and the copper line (or fibre if you're lucky) coming into your home is damaged during a storm, you will lose access to broadband, landline and TV. Essentially, you are putting all your eggs in one basket with quad-play.

One last issue that I would like to highlight is the power that you give a company when choosing quad-play. All of your data will be managed and processed by the same company, giving them the power to target you with personalised advertisements and other sales strategies. And, of course, I need to mention the more controversial topic that is privacy. When you choose quad-play, you do lose some form of privacy, regardless of what the company claims. The company can monitor all of your family's TV, Internet and phone usage.

Conclusion: A Seamless Ecosystem of Services

Picture
Credit: Virgin
As a communications provider, developing a strong and diverse ecosystem of services that can be bundled together is a difficult and slow process. Becoming a quad-play provider requires significant investment and scale, and the willingness to discount services in the hope of lowering churn rates and bolstering customer loyalty over the long term.

In Ireland, eir has shown its unique ability to offer quad-play services which appeal to a wide audience and tighten the company's grip over customers. Vodafone has also steadily developed its own quad-play model, along with Virgin Media. Sky remains a triple-play provider as it has yet to become an MVNO in this country as it has in the UK.

​For many consumers, benefits such as simplicity and cost savings far outweigh the drawbacks, which include inferior individual services and increased vulnerability to widespread faults. Going forward, it's likely that we'll see even more competitive quad-play offerings, creating an industry with an incredibly high subscriber stickiness rate. To sum this up in a single phrase, communications companies such as eir and Vodafone need to go big or go home.

How our Mobile Providers are facilitating surging Data Traffic

​The race to ensure our mobile networks provide sufficient capacity is becoming more difficult as our thirst for data continues to grow at an unprecedented rate.
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  • Home
  • Fixed
    • Exploring the Edge and the Future of a Decentralised Internet
    • Messing with the National Broadband Plan is a perilous precedent for Ireland
    • How Fibre is shaping 5G
    • Examining the viability of FWA in the 5G Era
    • The Changing Face of Broadband in Ireland
    • Dismantling the Optics of a National Broadband Plan fraught with trouble
    • Ireland's Gigabit Society is now within an arm's reach
    • The Merits of a Hybrid Broadband Network
    • Fibre: The Electricity of Tomorrow
    • The National Broadband Plan: Needlessly corrupted by Politics
    • Investigating the alternatives to Fibre Broadband in Ireland
    • Virgin Media: The Company that changed how we think about Broadband in Ireland
    • The Evolution of Quad-Play Services
    • An Analysis of Net Neutrality in Ireland: Why we are Particularly Vulnerable to its Eradication
    • The Best Mobile Broadband Plans in Ireland
    • eir: Few Companies have this much Potential
    • The National Broadband Plan: A Dream marred by Mistakes
    • How SIRO is revolutionising Ireland
    • The Best Fibre Broadband Only Plans
  • Mobile
    • Analysis: Vodafone goes unlimited in Ireland
    • A Breath of Fresh Eir
    • Understanding VoLTE: The Voice of Tomorrow
    • Your Technical Guide to WiFi Calling in Ireland.
    • Mapping Ireland and Europe's path to 5G
    • 5G and the Divide Divide haunting Ireland
    • Busting three myths thwarting the IoT
    • The MVNO model is ripe for disruption
    • Pest Pulse is using the IoT to tackle an old problem in a new way
    • The trends that will shape Ireland's Mobile Market in 2019
    • Mobile Coverage and Ireland: Not a Match
    • An Interview with the man building Ireland's largest IoT Network: Will Ferguson
    • The State of the IoT in Ireland
    • The Struggle to Monetise Data
    • In Ireland, Huawei finds a home with Three and eir, rebelling against "Security Concerns"
    • Revealed: The Irish Network with the Best 4G Coverage 2018
    • How are we tackling Coverage Black Spots in Ireland?
    • Breaking Down ComReg's latest Report on the Irish Mobile Market
    • The Shift from Growth to Retention in the Irish Telecoms Market
    • Five Challenges that the IoT is facing
    • Why ComReg is Vital for a Successful Telecoms Industry in Ireland
    • Tesco Mobile passes 400,000 Customers and adds 4G
    • How our Mobile Providers are facilitating surging Data Traffic
    • Eight Industries that are being transformed by Sigfox
    • Vodafone Review: The Best Network in Ireland keeps getting Better
    • Why will 5G be faster than 4G?
    • Is Xavier Niel on the verge of shaking up the Irish Mobile Market with Eir
    • Eir overhauls its mobile plans, giving customers more data than ever
    • NB-IoT Explained: The Technology that Vodafone hopes will connect everything
    • The MVNO Flop: Why Ireland's MVNOs have failed to make an impact
    • Explained: Why Telecoms and Media Giants are Merging
    • The Power of Sigfox: Pioneering the IoT Revolution
    • Vodafone Ireland launches "V by Vodafone", bringing the Internet of Things to the masses
    • The IoT Revolution: Connecting Everything
    • The Unlimited Delusion: When Unlimited means Limited
    • The Best Mobile Plans for your Business
    • The Best Bill Pay Plans in Ireland
    • The Best Pay as you go Plans in Ireland
    • Was the Three-O2 Merger a Mistake?
    • The State of Irish Mobile Networks: Summer 2018
    • Vodafone killed Cherry Points: A Mistake?
    • Here's how 5G will transform Ireland
    • Three just stormed past Eir
    • An analysis of Ireland's big three Mobile Networks
    • How Cheap can our Mobile Plans Get?
    • Net Neutrality: More than the Internet is at stake
    • Here's why Vodafone's pay as you go plans are the best out there.
    • iD Mobile's Demise is hardly a surprise
    • The Battle for 5G Supremacy
    • Unlimited Data is only as good as the Network it's on.
  • Reviews
    • eir Mobile Review: Not the Network to choose in 2018
    • Invoxia GPS Tracker Review: Elegance boasts Phenomenal Battery Life
    • Three Review: The Best Value Network in Ireland
    • Sennheiser AMBEO Smart Headset Review:
    • Vodafone TV Review: Redefining what we think of TV
    • Vodafone Mobile Broadband Review: Connecting the Disconnected
    • 3Plus Review: The Best Loyalty Program Out There
    • 3 Sim Only Review: World-Class Value
    • Tesco Mobile Review: The Best network for the Frugal
    • Three Review: All you can Eat Buffering
    • Vodafone Review: The Network to Beat
    • Meteor Review: Excellence Exemplified
    • Should Virgin Media be your next Mobile Network?
    • Samsung Galaxy S8: The Pinnacle of Smartphone Advancement
    • Huawei P10: The Best phone people don't know about
    • Vodafone Smart Platinum 7.
    • Vodafone Smart Prime 7.