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If this does come to pass, then I suspect lots of providers will be looking for an edge over their peers when it comes to securing *your* business.

Many of the larger ISPs also offer discounted tolls if you use their broadband offering -- well it's the other way around actually -- but after unbundling it may turn-around.

Of course cheap tolls are of little value when you've got a good fast, reliable broadband connection anyway because there are a growing list of VOIP providers who'll let you call anywhere on the planet (to a regular phone even) for just a few cents a minute.

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So how are players in the DSL market going to catch your eye and your wallet when the competition threatens to be so cut-throat?

Well they might take a leaf from the mobile phone market -- start offering exclusive content.

If you watched TV1's CloseUp programme last night you'll have seen a piece on how folks are downloading video content from Bit Torrent streams and thus bypassing broadcasters and their advertising.

Once we get full-speed DSL (ie: >3.5Mbps) and more people start catching on to this wonderful source of entertainment content, I strongly suspect that (just as with music downloads - legal or otherwise) everyone will do it.

Now if you're an ISP this isn't a good thing...

Broadcast-quality video is *big* and bulky, even when compressed with the latest CODECs. This means that in order to keep customers happy, ISPs are going to need to provision a snot-load of bandwidth to keep up with demand, and that means margins that get squeezed even tighter.

So here's the idea: why not license some of this content from the creators and make it available exclusively to your customers -- serving it up from local servers and thus saving the international bandwidth?

Even better, you could insert your own (*small* please) advertising spots into the stream. Selling these spots would generate additional revenues to help that bottom-line.

Boy, we're talking *major* convergence here aren't we?

Suddenly your ISP also becomes a broadcaster, DVD rental shop, advertising agency and a whole lot more.

Perhaps the smarter ISPs will partner up with other companies in these areas to create new media empires that will eclipse those that now dish up our daily drivel.

With devices such as the video-capable iPod, PSP and doubtless other multi-media-enabled personal entertainment devices, I suspect that the demand for downloadable and interesting video content will soar in coming years. Any ISP that can offer their customers legal access to this without penalty (ie: without eating into their data-cap) will definitely have an edge on the rest.

If they set themselves up properly, these ISPs can offer special interest groups, community broadcasters and others who want to deliver their video content to the masses -- a turnkey IP-broadcasting solution (for a fee of course).

So, it could be that the job of being a competitive ISP is about to get a whole lot more complex and interesting.

Today's question: would you be more inclined to use an ISP that, as part of your monthly fee, also included free access to a raft of *quality* video material such as you might otherwise find on pay-TV? What about good quality music vids?

What if this stuff could be downloaded at broadcast-quality levels without affecting your data-cap?

Are there any other ways that ISPs can differentiate themselves from competitors in the soon-to-be unbundled marketplace? What will you be looking for in this new marketplace?

Done over again
Well if you didn't read about it already in the forums, the evil sods who ripped me off on the weekend returned yesterday and took what they missed the first-time, plus some of the gear that had already been bought to replace the stolen stuff.

The PC I was hoping to resurrect has now gone, as have many of the new tools. Not happy just to steal other people's property, they also decided to smash some stuff up this time. The total (uninsured) loss from *this* most recent intrusion is about $5K, and that's on top of what was lost on the weekend.

You'll have to excuse me if I'm a little depressed at the moment -- it's good to have my work on this column as a distraction though.

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