It's bundle time: Verizon and RCN roll out packages

By Susan Rush
from CED Broadband Direct, August 6, 2002

The bundle: a multitude of services all on one bill. Many telecom companies are offering the bundle to attract and retain customers. Verizon Communications is rolling out a package that includes everything from local phone services to high-speed Internet access, while RCN Corp. is beefing its current package with international options.

Verizon bundles it all, almost
It has been a busy week for Verizon, and it is only Tuesday. Yesterday, the communications company said it was trialing broadband fixed wireless in Northern Virginia. Today, the company is rolling out a bundled service package that includes everything but television.

The comprehensive package, dubbed Veriations All, includes local phone services, long-distance, regional toll, DSL and wireless services. The single bill blurs the distinctions between wireless and wireline services, according to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg.

The bundled plan includes unlimited DSL Internet access from Verizon Online; unlimited night and weekend minutes, 300 anytime nationwide calling minutes and 1,000 mobile-to-mobile minutes from Verizon Wireless; unlimited direct-dialed domestic calling nights and weekends and 300 anytime minutes of direct dialed nationwide domestic calling from Verizon Long Distance; and unlimited local and regional toll calling from Verizon.

Depending on the state, a subscriber can expect to pay between roughly $135 and $145 a month for the bundled service package.

Veriations All is available in Verizon's New York and Massachusetts service areas. The service package will be extended to customers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania next month, with plans to enter additional markets next year.

The Veriations All package should bring Verizon an additional $500 million to $1 billion in revenue over the next five to six years, and allow customers to save at least $250 a year, Verizon Chief Marketing Officer Maura Breen said.

RCN goes international
Separately, overbuilder RCN has added an international flare its to its RCN Essentials bundled service package. The Essentials/International package gives subscribers a choice of one international premium cable channel and one international calling plan. The service package also offers customers cable TV service and local and long distance calling plans.

The international options are being launched this month to RCN customers in Queens, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Lehigh, Pa. Later this year, the company plans to expand the offering to Manhattan and Washington, D.C.

RCN first debuted its Essentials package in May. At the time of the announcement, RCN Chairman and CEO David McCourt said Essentials would help the company "introduce consumers to RCN, and to broaden the appeal of our bundled services to people who aren't current RCN customers."