Queue the Carmina Burana. Time Warner Cable is on the verge of entering the mobile phone market, reports the Wall Street Journal. (paid subscription)

Hit play now. Turn up the volume. Hear the music reach its climax while your neighbours go crazy.

Adding mobile phone service to their product line up makes Time Warner the only US operator that has the quadruple play: a combination of traditional and wireless telephony, television and internet access. The deal will make Time Warner the only company to reach the fourth stage of playfulness, the holiest of the holiest in the world of the telecommunications.

The brave citizens of Kansas City will be the first to feast on the bundled services, some time in early 2005. Sprint will provide the Time Warner Cable branded mobile service.

Combining several services gives consumers the benefit of a single invoice and a single helpdesk to threaten when things go wrong. Operators often offer discounts to customers who subscribe to more than one service.

Carriers expect that customers that subscribe to several services are less likely to switch providers. They also are cheaper to manage and increase the revenue per customer.

30 Dec 2004