04/23/2018

Comcast, Charter Partner on Backend Platforms for Wireless Service

The wireless business is already fiercely competitive, to put it mildly, so industry watchers are carefully scrutinizing every move cable operators make as they enter the fray. An announcement released Monday that Comcast and Charter have formed a wireless partnership agreement is certain to stir even more speculation on their ultimate strategy. A particularly interesting element of the deal is that the two companies won’t make a material merger or acquisition in wireless without the other’s consent for one year.

Conjecture has been flying for a while that a major cable company could aim to snag the likes of T-Mobile or Sprint to further wireless plays beyond the MVNO reseller agreements both Comcast and Charter have separately with Verizon. A Wall Street Journal article on Sunday night reported that neither company as a single entity would be able to purchase another wireless carrier during the year timeframe as a result of their agreement without the other’s blessing or involvement, a source “familiar with the matter” said. While the Comcast/Charter statement released Monday doesn’t put it quite so directly, it does confirm the companies have agreed “to work only together with respect to national mobile network operators, through potential commercial arrangements, including MVNOs and other material transactions in the wireless industry, for a period of one year.”

Comcast and Charter’s dual press release also states that the companies have an agreement to explore potential opportunities for “operational cooperation in their respective wireless businesses to accelerate and enhance each company’s ability to participate in the national wireless marketplace.” Areas where they’ll work together are in creating common operating platforms; technical standards development and harmonization; device forward and reverse logistics; and emerging wireless technology platforms.

“We’re looking forward to launching Xfinity Mobile to our customers in the coming weeks and are excited about this opportunity to work with Charter to explore ways we can make our respective wireless initiatives more efficient and cost effective,” Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast says. “Both of our companies have regional wireless businesses using the same 4G LTE network, and by working together our goal is to create even better experiences for our customers.”

Comcast’s wireless service will be offered in bundled packages with the operator’s other Xfinity services. Subscribers can get up to five lines automatically included when they add Xfinity Mobile to Xfinity Internet service, with no line access fees, unlimited talk and text, and the first 100 MB of shared 4G LTE data included. More on Comcast’s plans for its soon-to-launch wireless service is here.

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