You can't take it with you.

Let's take a break from politics for a minute because another opinion I love to rant about is all the subscription services that are being pushed our way. I can remember when we would go out and sell magazine subscriptions for fundraisers, and I can recall when I got my first cell phone bill. Paying for a land line phone, cable TV, and then adding a cell phone at the time was a big deal. Then we add on internet access, and some people subscribing for XM radio, OnStar, and more recently the popularity of mobile broadband. All these subscription services pile on top of one another and can begin to overtake even your monthly transportation budget. There is a term for this being discussed by other bloggers "Subscription Overload"

One way I cut back, after realizing every member of the family had a cell phone, was like many, we eliminated the land line phone. While this is an option for some, depending on who you call your mobile plan may not keep up with all the peak minutes.

With the economy slowing and energy costs rising, families are trying to find ways to trim budgets and yet keep connected. One recent story posted by Mike Elgan suggests that even laptops will come down in price to as low as $99! This would be attractive but theres a catch, like your fancy new cell phone, your laptop would be subsidized by the data carrier you would be obligated to 'subscribe' to get online. This built in mobile broadband, while convienient, could cost you a 2 year obligation, and who knows what the monthly rate will be. I looked into mobile broadband, but could not justify the cost, at around $60 per month, it was another monthly expense that I can as of yet, live without.

Where devices and providers need to converge is a way to take your connection with you, without having to pay for an additional monthly contract. Avis recently began offering a mobile WiFi solution with rental cars, that you have a portable 'HotSpot' so you can connect all your WiFi enabled devices while you travel. Your kids can stay connected wile driving, you GPS may be able to get traffic updates, and you can grab your stock quotes or weather data on your iPod touch, and the whole family can share it, just like at home.

My suggestion, is handset makers and mobile carriers should add WiFi access points as a feature for our cell phones. This way we can take our data connection with us and share it! While Verizon offers a tethering option for the blackberry, who wants to have to string your laptop and phone together. We always have our phone with us, and what good is an unlimited data plan on the phone if you have to go and upgrade your laptop to an unlimited data plan as well, are you honestly using both connections at the same time? One side effect if only one parent's phone is the hot spot, the kids would want to spend more time around dad, right?

A friend has AT&T and she claims they offer a radio option to stream XM radio on her blackberry. If radio programs, internet, and phone service can be delivered on one device, wouldn't that expand the market for AT&T or Verizon if they offered packages that bundle one device and one bill to feed all your other devices data and media. You could then finally 'Take it with you!'