Altice offers mobile ‘price for life’ to draw customers
Altice USA debuted its new mobile phone service Thursday with a “price for life” of $20 monthly for unlimited service for subscribers to its Optimum and Suddenlink cable TV and mobile services, well below the $70 average for major U.S. competitors.
Through Optimum, the New Yorkbased company is the dominant cable provider in the coastal Fairfield County region and pockets of Connecticut elsewhere. The “price for life” hook is the second such offer Altice USA has extended this summer, on the heels of a $65amonth rate for its new fiber optic cable broadband service.
Altice joins Philadelphiabased Comcast and Stamford’s Charter Communications, which already offer mobile service in competition with Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobile, TMobile and Sprint, the last two carriers in the process of merging.
Altice Mobile indicated its plan offers significant savings compared to the $70 average mobile bill in the United States, with the plan matching the $20 price for Google Fi mobile service, but with that plan charging extra for data use beyond 1 gigabyte a month. The Altice Mobile plan includes unlimited data, text and voice service; streaming video; and mobile hotspot access. Service extends to Canada, Mexico and some three dozen other countries, including most of Europe.
“Customers are getting much less value for money with their current mobile providers, which is where Altice Mobile comes in,” said Dexter Goei, CEO of Altice Mobile, speaking in late July to investment analysts as part of a review of the company’s spring results. “Altice can access the latest technologies and deliver a superior and
differentiate mobile experience for customers.”
Altice USA is running the service over Sprint’s cellular transmitters as well as its own fiber and wireless equipment. Altice indicated it will update its platform to accommodate 5G wireless broadband that represents the next stage of U.S. mobile service.
Noncable customers will pay $30 a month for Altice Mobile service, with subscribers spared having to lock into a contract. Altice Mobile is allowing customers to use existing phones that are compatible with its systems or purchase new ones, with financing offers available for no money down and no interest.
Customer can sign up online or at Optimum stores, with the company having set up several weeks ago a mobile display at its Norwalk location at 28 Cross St., in preparation for the launch. On Thursday, the section of Altice Mobile’s website listing plan options returned an error message after failing to load, with an Altice USA spokesperson telling Hearst Connecticut Media that excessive traffic to the website could have been a factor.