Service will leverage 16 million Wi-Fi hot spots.
Cable and media giant Comcast is following through on its plan to offer wireless service to customers with the launch of Xfinity Mobile. Existing Comcast customers will be eligible to add wireless, and the company is hoping an affordable and reliable wireless option will bring in new customers for its bundled offer. During a call with investors, the company said its network will reach 130 million potential subscribers.
Comcast will use the Verizon Wireless network, leveraging a mobile virtual network operator agreement the two companies signed more than five years ago as part of a spectrum sale. MVNO agreements allow companies to buy wireless service in bulk and resell it to their own customers under their own name.
Comcast will also leverage its extensive Wi-Fi network in support of Xfinity Mobile. The company said it has 16 million Wi-Fi hot spots and will move wireless customers onto Wi-Fi whenever they are within range.
The company plans to open Xfinity Mobile stores throughout the U.S., and said roughly 80% of its 29 million customers live within 15 miles of a location targeted for an Xfinity Mobile store. When existing and future customers enter Xfinity Mobile stores, the experience is likely to be similar to the current experience inside AT&T retail stores. Customers will be greeted by offers to bundle wireless service with TV and internet service, as well as by a selection of high-end smartphone models. Comcast said it will offer iPhones, Samsung devices and LG smartphones.
Comcast will offer customers two ways to buy wireless service:
o Unlimited, with each line of unlimited data costing $65, or $45 per line for customers with Comcast’s most expensive Xfinity X1 packages. Customers can get up to five lines.
o By the gigabyte, where Comcast will charge $12 per gigabyte of cellular data across all lines on an account each month. Families can share their data across devices and will only pay for what they use.
Families can mix-and-match on an account, meaning that one person can have an unlimited plan and another can pay by the gig. If customers find that they’ve used more data on a “by the Gig” option one month, they can switch to unlimited for that month, then switch back the next month with no penalties. Comcast has created a mobile app to enable customers to switch between plans more easily.
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile US and Sprint all stand to lose some subscribers to Comcast. Right now the threat is probably more serious than the threat posed by Google’s MVNO, Google Fi, because Comcast already has billing relationships with 29 million customers and can leverage those to market its service. The Verizon network is also a selling point for Comcast, because Verizon’s network consistently scores highest in nationwide tests of network performance.
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