| A few years ago, it was common to buy your phone | | | | Internet connections. Not only does this save you |
| service from a phone company, your Internet | | | | money, but it also saves you the inconvenience of |
| connection from an ISP, and your cable TV from a | | | | having to keep track of and pay multiple bills. |
| cable company. Sometimes all these services used | | | | However, before you enter into any such |
| the same connection, but more often they didn't. | | | | agreement, you should be careful to read up carefully |
| Recently, however, the phone, Internet and cable | | | | on whichever company you're going with and make |
| companies have realised that they could all become | | | | sure that you can trust them. It's terrible to end up |
| much more profitable by offering all the different | | | | owing large amounts of money to a company with |
| services on one line, for one price - they call it 'triple | | | | bad customer service. |
| play'. Much like being able to get electricity and gas | | | | At this point, the future is widely seen to be |
| from the same provider, this has been caused by | | | | extending the service to the amusingly-named 'four |
| deregulation, but it's nothing to be afraid of - in fact, | | | | play'. The first company in the world to offer this is |
| it's often a great way to save money. | | | | France Telecom, under the Orange mobile phone |
| How it works is this: you agree to let one company | | | | brand, and it has already started rebranding the |
| run your line (either phone or cable), and give you all | | | | various ISPs it owns to use the Orange name. In the |
| three services over it. In return, they typically give | | | | future, all your communication services could be on |
| you some kind of discount, such as free Internet | | | | just one bill - which bodes well for the |
| service when you buy the best phone package, or | | | | surely-coming-soon adoption of mobile Internet, |
| more TV channels for people with the fastest | | | | doesn't it? |