Comcast to launch mobile phone service next year

Associated Press

Comcast plans to launch a cellphone service next year in areas of the country where it’s a cable provider.

That could make the cable giant a competitor to carriers such as Verizon and AT&T for a subset of the country. Comcast has just over 28 million customers.

It plans to create a service that would run on its 15 million Wi-Fi hot spots and use Verizon’s wireless network, which it has a deal to resell.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts confirmed the plans at an investment conference Tuesday in New York. He suggested that Comcast was looking at the mobile service as an add-on to customer bundles, and combining wireless service with Comcast cable or internet would likely make customers stick with Comcast longer.

It also could mean some savings for customers.

“If Comcast is to make this a compelling offer, especially given their lack of history in wireless, they’re going to have to offer some steep discounts in their bundles,” telecom analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research said.

Several attempts by big cable companies to offer wireless service have foundered, such as the WiFi-only phone launched by New York-area cable company Cablevision in early 2015. Cox Communications pulled the plug on its shortlived mobile phone service in 2011, saying it didn’t have the heft to compete.