Comcast Starts Offering Wireless Phone Service

“Comcast is offering wireless as an add-on for subscribers of its “triple play” package of cable TV, telephone and Internet services. The price is $33 a month for 200 minutes and provides such services as voicemail, navigation and call forwarding”, reports Computerworld. The service runs on the Sprint network (as they so often do), and the article notes that “Sprint will ultimately receive the wireless fees. The main benefit for Comcast is to attract and retain subscribers”. This is a far different value proposition from MVNOs like Amp’d or Helio, which are targeting niche audiences — Comcast is simply offering another service to its customers with the lure of one bill. So far this is just in Boston, but the company hopes to expand into other markets next year. Cox Communications also expects to introduce wireless services early next year.
More interesting is the move by Time Warner’s cable unit, which “has made wireless services available to customers who request it in Raleigh, N.C., and Austin” and plans to start marketing in the first quarter of 2007. “Time Warner Cable said its wireless packages start at $29.99 a month as an add-on service. Additional data services, including local news video subscription, will start at $15…Mike Roudi, Time Warner Cable’s VP of wireless said that in markets where Time Warner owns the local news channels, one of its priorities is to broadcast news live to the mobile phones…”We’re working with programming partners to make that a reality in short order,” said Roudi.”

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