WalMart has expanded its telecom services product line again. You can now add AT&T’s U-verse service to Wal-Mart's growing portfolio of broadband and telecom service offerings. AT&T announced the move on Monday, which also includes Circuit City as a retail channel for U-verse. Six hundred WalMart and Circuit City locations near U-verse deployments will retail AT&T’s services in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. "We're excited to add AT&T U-verse to the list of must-have items that consumers can get from these leading retailers. Our services are the perfect fit to accompany and enhance customers' purchases,” said Glenn Lurie, president, National Distribution, AT&T in a company statement.

AT&T joins other triple play providers marketing their services at third party retail channels, taking note from the success of wireless retail strategies at these same stores. Most large MSOs already have retail relationships for their triple play offerings. AT&T has already been selling phone and DSL services at these locations. On the surface, these retail relationships make good sense. No better time to try to upsell IPTV and broadband, than when a customer is purchasing a new HDTV or computer. That being said, these triple play retail strategies have yet to prove their effectiveness. If AT&T can find a fraction of the success with U-verse that they find with third party wireless retail strategies, it will be well worth it. Certainly not an apples to apples comparison, but maybe it won’t be long before triple play service providers subsidize HDTV and computer purchases in retail stores to sell triple play bundles, much the same way they do with wireless devices today.

Circuit City CEO Phil Schoonover addressed the CTAM Summit on Wednesday and suggested the future of the triple play should include retail. Circuit City has already launched a few concept stores, one in partnership with Comcast, where triple play services are marketed along with HDTVs and other electronics. Schoonover even suggested that triple play providers should consider getting out of the installation business, and rely on their retail partners like Circuit City, most of whom have launched technology consulting and installation services for end customers - firedog in Circuit City’s case.

Schoonover had some interesting points, albeit some of which were self serving. He outlined a sales transaction where a customer comes in to by a TV, and by the time they leave, has been sold triple play service along with the TV and the installation of everything. Certainly a nice picture for Circuit City, but will consumers embrace such a practice. If they ultimately do, it may provide cable (and maybe DBS) an advantage. Triple play operators that utilize IPTV will be competitively disadvantaged, primarily because they are unable to implement retail set top box strategies at stores other than their own – at least for the time being. The CableCARD mandate by the FCC, which facilitates retail distribution of cable set top boxes, may ultimately work to cable’s advantage. If Schoonover vision becomes reality, we may soon see rapid growth of jointly branded Comcast/Cox/Time Warner and Circuit City retail stores, providing a digital smorgasbord of products and services, all of which can be purchased, activated, and installation arranged for on a single visit.

Earthlink recently announced a retail strategy that offers their municipal wireless broadband and other solutions through an unnamed retail partner. Utilizing a retail channel is increasingly becoming required to compete in today’s landscape. Both telecom and cable carriers are leveraging retail relationships to their fullest extent. AT&T recently announced expanding the role of their wireless retail presence. Cable MSOs continue to utilize retail channels through the likes of Circuit City, Best Buy and others.

Carriers who fail to have a retail channel may be at a disadvantage. The problem may be more acute for smaller carriers who operate in areas where appropriate retail partners exist, but smaller footprint and scale make it difficult to forge retail partnerships. While other sales channels are available and extremely relevant, including the web, retail channels continue to be attractive and should be exploited wherever possible.

For more info on Earthlink’s announcement, read this TWICE post.