There is what appears to be a very insightful article over at TheFeature about what is traditionally called the “triple play” of services: voice, data, and video. I heard a decent amount about that coupling of services when I was working with companies trying to structure deals with telcos and ISPs. I know it’s something that people at these organizations are paying attention to. But I never quite put the push to get TV on handsets together with the general principles of the coupling of services. Put in that light I can see why they would be going for something like this. I’m not really sure that it’s valid overall, but it certainly does reframe the effort. And if we ignore the short term issues and look at the pie in the sky, there might be a workable model in there somewhere. However, that doesn’t mean that long term technologies should be forced on the public before either the public or the technology is ready for them. The analysis is great, but although I now might understand the telco position a little better I don’t excuse them for their behavior towards their customers and potential application innovators.