Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile joins the WIRELESS WAR
But service available only for Comcast Internet subscribers
Comcast is set to go NEW YORK mobile.
The cable and Internet provider spelled out the details Thursday on the wireless service that CEO Brian Roberts announced in September.
The newly branded Xfinity Mobile service leverages Verizon Wireless’ network and launches mid-year. It will be confined to Comcast customers who already pay for home Internet service, as well as potential new Internet subscribers who reside within Comcast’s footprint. That area covers markets across the nation but is missing in places such as New York City and Los Angeles.
“It’s really anchored around value-add for the Comcast customer. We’re not taking on the entire wireless industry,” says Sam Schwartz, chief business development officer for Comcast Cable.
Comcast has 29 million customer relationships, he says, and is the largest residential Internet service provider in the country.
Even without tackling an entire industry, it makes sense that a cable giant like Comcast would want to plunge into the fluid and fiercely competitive wireless business. The largest traditional cellphone combatants, Verizon and AT&T, are also powerhouses in media, entertainment, tech and broadband, and these companies have wide ambitions that often overlap with Comcast’s. They’re all jockeying for the mindshare of the consumer, leading to a smorgasbord of compelling but sometimes confusing services that range from blazing-fast Internet to fresh streaming mobile content.
Whenever possible, Xfinity Mobile will tap Comcast’s more than 16 million Wi-Fi hotspots. Service will be supplemented by cellular network coverage supplied by Verizon Wireless, which entered a so-called MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) partnership with Comcast that dates to about 2011.
Though Comcast is open about this relationship, the Verizon brand is not part of the direct pitch to consumers, with Comcast only saying it uses the “most reliable 4G LTE network.”
Schwartz says “every inch of their network will be available to our subscribers, as well.” Comcast is promising that its customers will be on equal footing with Verizon customers when accessing that network. (Verizon gains some incremental business.) But Schwartz adds that more than 80% of the data that people consume on their smartphones is over Wi-Fi.
Xfinity Mobile, in fact, will automatically connect your smartphone to Wi-Fi when it is available, though consumers have the option to turn Wi-Fi off in places where cellular might be faster or more reliable.
At launch, phones that work will be an iPhone, or top phones from Samsung or LG. Out of the gate you won’t be able to bring your own phone to the service.
By way of comparison, Google’s Project Fi, part of an MVNO partnership Google has with Sprint and T-Mobile, is limited to Google’s own Pixel, Nexus 6P, Nexus 6 and Nexus 5X devices.
Xfinity Mobile customers will have two main pricing choices, an unlimited data plan or a pay-by-the gig plan.
The unlimited price will either be $45 or $65 per month per line up to five lines, with the lower monthly price reserved for customers on Comcast’s “best” X1 video packages, typically those that start around $150 per month. Unlimited talk and text is included, and there’s no per line access fee.
The pay-bythe-gig monthly option costs $12 per GB of cellular data across all lines on an account, and you only pay for what you use.