It looks like WiMax has a good chance of converging most of our daily bills or, better put, technologies into one. Cable, internet, cell-phone, and land-line phone bills could all be handled by WiMax from what I understand. This brings me to a more important issue though. Will a new broad technology, so capable, really reduce our costs. Take for instance, television. Will companies put there television content on the internet for free as ad-supported? Or, will cable companies become internet services that once again bring together multiple channels for a fee in stupid packages. I sure hope the second possibility doesn't happen. I can't stand cable companies as it is. It's hard to see the second possibility happening though. There are several television channels that speak English that aren't from the United States. They will have a much better chance of reaching US citizens via the internet and aren't likely going to want some stupid US cable company determining what they can publish on the internet. I should mention that there are already several internet-only television stations. For example, Mania TV. I bring up this relatively pointless argument because years ago I heard a cable company forced Disney to take a live web-stream of ESPN off the internet. This was because the cable company supposedly had distribution rights included in their contract.
Technologies to consider,
- IPTV (Internet Protocol Television)
- DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting)
Anyway, there's more to this consolidation besides just cable bills. For instance, phone bills will still exist in the form of VoIP. At least you won't have a cell-phone bill, a land-line bill, and then an internet bill on top of it all. That's the idea anyway but who knows how things will end up.
Companies to consider,
- Skype
- Vonage
( I admit some aspects of this discussion are irrelevant and dumb. However, companies desperate to make money off of a market never cease to amaze me in the number of pointless things they'll charge a person for. How about ring-tones? Wasn't that pretty stupid? )
