The Future's Bright

Next week looks as if it is shaping up to be broadband week with both Orange and Vodafone expected to announce their strategies in the forthcoming converged services market.

With Carphone Warehouse already offering ‘free’ broadband through TalkTalk – a claim that is continuing to attract complaints from the public and rivals to the ASA – both Orange, who will gain full broadband services after merging fully with Wanadoo next week, and Vodafone, who are hotly tipped to buy an ISP soon to offer services, want to get in on the act.

The converged services market is shaping up to be more confusing than getting a new mobile contract – trying to work out your best deal usually requires a maths degree and a lot of patience – and each player will be offering a combination of discounts set against other parts of its business.

But who will emerge victorious? BT has a strong hold on the broadband market and so could, theoretically, manoeuvre this into the converged services market with a mobile play, but BT Fusion is not proving very popular. Vodafone has a great brand in mobile, but no broadband heritage at all and will have to move fast and pay big to bring some in.

Orange is without a doubt the best placed. It has a good mobile brand and with the backing of France Telecom and a £130m marketing campaign to rebrand Wanadoo as Orange next week, will be making a big impact on the market from the start of converged services.