Communication companies are increasingly selling more and more services bundled together at a small discount to the consumer. And consumers are apparently likng it.

IDC said consumer demand for the convenience of bundled packages of voice, video, broadband, and mobile wireless services is increasing. The research firm predicts that the U.S. market for bundled services will grow from less than 45 million customers today to more than 84 million by 2010.

Many U.S. households already receive cable and Internet services from the same provider (double play). In a few years, these customers will be subscribing to additional services from that provider (triple or quadruple play) for the benefit of one fewer bill to deal with.

But it goes way beyond the convenience of paying one bill. Once the company starts serving you more than one service, it can start integrating services. You can stream video from your video recorder to your cellphone, for instance, and receive better cellphone coverage at home because you may be able to integrate in with your Wi-Fi provider.