Staying connected is about to become even easier.  In a world of wireless, land line, and video phones, the Internet, and hundreds of television channels and their associated content, it’s easy to understand why, as our lives become more dependent on these services, consumers will demand increased and more efficient access to them.  3G enabled cell phones and mobile broadband already give smartphone users almost unfettered access to the entire content of the Internet (although some bandwidth intensive services get throttled).  Fiber to the home (FTTH) and limited roll outs of highly anticipated 4G wireless data services will give people unprecedented access at any time or in any place to the bandwidth needed for consumption of increasingly converging services like VOIP and IPTV.

To fill this need, ISP’s and telecom companies are rushing to upgrade their network infrastructure and add services.  While the “triple play”, consisting of TV, Internet, and phone service has driven competition between these companies for several years now and spawned some interesting innovations, a fourth component, namely wireless broadband, is emerging as the “final out” in the telecom “quadruple play”.

The main players presently in the quadruple play game are Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, and Verizon.  Comcast and Time Warner, originally cable TV companies, leveraged their copped-based networks to become broadband ISPs and, with the onset of VOIP technology, phone companies.  Comcast, having invested heavily in the WiMAX service provider Clearwire, and now offering its 4G based High Speed 2Go service in a couple markets, is well positioned to compete in all four service areas.  Verizon, originally a land line based telephone company, like the cable companies leveraged its copper based network to become broadband ISP.  Its recent FIOS Internet and TV deployments give it a distinct advantage as an ISP and its wireless 3G cell phone network already offers mobile broadband service.  AT&T was also originally a phone company turned ISP.  It offers U-Verse TV, and like Verizon, has legacy land line telephone customers and one of the nation’s largest 3G cell phone networks upon which it serves the extremely popular iPhone.

Both consumers and the telecom companies stand to benefit from the quadruple play.  Content will be accessible anywhere and on more than just a 3″ cell phone screen.  The synergies created by being able to bill for multiple services carried by the same “pipe” or wireless signal into the home are clear.  While consumers may enjoy the ease of unified billing, companies like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast stand to embed themselves so deeply into our lives and home infrastructure that canceling or downgrading their services would be more hassle than it’s worth.  And theoretically, these synergies should lead to lower prices for consumers for the combined portfolio of products.

As wireless broadband roll outs continue and competition between these companies increases as their markets converge, the lure of discount bundled services should attract more customers to services they may have otherwise not used.  Innovative, cross platform products will emerge that span the different services and further blur their boundaries.  Consumers will find themselves connecting to each other faster and with higher quality than ever before, lending to the question…Will you embrace the quadruple play?