First, Comcast entered the world of wireless a few years ago with Xfinity Mobile. Then, a year later Charter entered with Spectrum Mobile. Since that time, we have been waiting for Altice to enter and that’s just what they did recently with Altice Mobile. Let’s take a close look at the cable television based wireless offerings and see what we can expect from Altice.
I attended their conference call introducing Altice Mobile and to tell you the truth, I was pleasantly surprised, delighted and a bit skeptical. If they can live up to what they outlined, this could be a successful competitor in the wireless world. However, it will depend whether the marketplace accepts them.
That means their marketing, advertising, messaging and branding will be key. Other new wireless competitors simply haven’t broken into the marketplace in a substantial way. Will Altice Mobile will be different? They think so.
Altice Mobile will resell AT&T Mobility and Sprint
Presenting on the announcement were CEO Dexter Goei, COO Hakim Boubazine and Lisa Anselmo, Head of Communications.
The first surprise was they will resell the wireless services from AT&T Mobility and Sprint. That’s good news because while Sprint has plenty of spectrum, they are bottom of the list of top four wireless providers. Until yesterday, we were expecting Altice Mobile would just resell Sprint.
However, during the call, they surprised me by saying they will resell both AT&T Mobility and Sprint. That’s great news for them. This puts them on the radar.
This means they will resell the “Best Wireless Network” with AT&T, as we recently learned from the latest Global Wireless Solutions study. Plus, they will have Sprint spectrum if needed. This is a good combination.
Altice Mobile costs $20 or $30 per month
Second, the service is affordable. Existing Altice customers will just pay $20 per month per line for unlimited talk, text and data. That is lower than Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile, who resell Verizon Wireless. Non-Altice customers will pay $30 per month. However, you must be in the Altice market area either way.
Third, there are no long-term contracts with the service.
Fourth, they didn’t discuss 5G, so I don’t imagine that service will be offered initially. This will likely be added over the next few years. This is the same with Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile.
Altice Mobile offers unlimited voice, text, data
Fifth, I asked about their unlimited data and what the top limits are, before the customer gets throttled to a slower and unusable speed. They said there are no limits. If true, that’s an exciting position as well.
Sixth, they also said they would be profitable within a year. If so, that would be amazing since Xfinity Mobile loses money for Comcast month after month. Comcast does not focus on profitability. They use wireless as one leg of their stool to hang onto their existing customers.
Altice Mobile says they expect to be profitable in a year. They say they entered the US marketplace for cable TV three years ago, but they have been in other countries doing the same thing for quite a long time.
Altice Mobile has wireless experience in other countries world-wide
They also said they resell wireless in other countries as well. So, they know what they are doing. And they fully expect to be profitable within a year.
This all sounds too good to be true compared to other cable TV companies. Now we wait and see if they can convince the marketplace with advertising, marketing, messaging and branding.
While I would love to see that and would be happy to tell the world of their success, since I have watched Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile for the last couple years, Altice Mobile will have to prove it before I can believe it. That being said, this sounds like an interesting company to follow as it enters wireless.
Wireless industry continues to grow and change with 5G
With all that said, the wireless industry continues to grow and to change. New competitors keep entering and changing the paradigm. It is exciting to see how wireless and 5G will change the marketplace.
Like with Xfinity and Spectrum, this is an opportunity for Altice to stabilize their customer base and to add a new slice of the pie and be profitable all at the same time.
So, to Altice Mobile, welcome to the wonderful world of in the USA. The industry continues to grow and to change. The leaders of today like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless will likely remain leaders going forward. However, there is always room for another successful competitor and reseller.
I wish you much success and look forward to following you and seeing how well you do in the US wireless marketplace going forward.
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