01/29/2018

Comcast Wireless Service Now Has 388,000 Customers

Comcast this week stated that the company's Xfinity wireless phone service added 187,000 subscribers during the fourth quarter, ending 2017 with more than 380,000 users in total. Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said the company is "really pleased" with the early results from the service, which launched last May. Bundle customers can sign up for Xfinity Mobile for $45 per line for "unlimited" (users get throttled to 1.5 Mbps after 20 GB) data, text and voice, though the service is $65 per month if users only subscribe to Comcast broadband service.

Comcast also provides an option where users can pay $12 per GB of cellular data across all lines on an account. The company also recently added a BYOD (bring your own device) option, though it's limited to very specific phone models.

At launch, analysts criticized Comcast for not trying very hard with the service, using predominately as an opportunity to upsell existing customers more service, as opposed to directly challenging incumbent wireless providers. And while 380,000 users is nothing to sneeze at, it's almost irrelevant in context of wireless competitors AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.

But Comcast executives said they remain happy with the early modest progress from the effort (as if they'd publicly say anything else), even though analysts remain somewhat skeptical that the service will gain serious traction.

"We’re really pleased with the early stage results" Watson said on an earnings call with analysts and the media. "We like our game plan. We like the fact that it’s connected to our existing business lines. It’s a really simple approach that can scale."

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Wireless-Service-Now-Has-388000-Customers-141124