For the past months or so I've been using a great little service called Hullomail. It provides a voicemail service, a mobile app, and integration into email and, as a result, I now have a level of independence from any particular mobile phone device or mobile operator as I can now receive notification of missed calls and voicemail even if I don't have one of my two phones with me. In fact, bar actual phone calls, SMS is the only function I'm tied to a specific handset for so, if you need to get hold of me, don't text.
This separation of service from either provider or device seems like a good basic principal. It used to be the case that most people with a personal email address would have the one provided by their ISP. Then people started to realise that that became a problem if you wanted to change provider because you either had to access across networks, or had to change email address. Another factor, I guess, that led to the Hotmail revolution.
Bundling of services, however, is a way service providers can offer perceived value. BT for a long while spoke about the "triple play" of phone, broadband and television (or even a "quadruple play" including mobile too). On the face of it this seems a good deal for the consumer, but it makes choice much more difficult in the future bedside you are locked in to more services. It's of much greater benefit, however, for the provider because, presumably, much of the cost of a customer comes from setting up and maintaining a billing relationship, the incremental cost of providing additional services is negligible (particularly data-based ones) so the aim has to be to increase ARPU (average revenue per customer) to as high a point as possible.
mmitII 