Comcast subscribers may find their service will extend away from their home network, with a report claiming the cable company is looking to move into providing cellular services to its users. It is alleged Comcast has advised Verizon it will be reselling part of the carrier's wireless service to its customers under a
2012 spectrum deal, with the supposed new service potentially being offered to Comcast customers by this time next year.
In 2012, Verizon acquired a number of national spectrum licenses from a consortium of cable companies for $3.6 billion, in order to extend its LTE capacity. As part of the terms of the deal, the cable companies have the ability to resell Verizon's wireless services, something initially capitalized on by
Time Warner Cable and apparently now being attempted by Comcast. Verizon and Comcast did work together on a combined cable and wireless bundle, but
terminated the partnership in October 2013 due to changing market conditions.
Verizon CFO Fran Shammo confirmed earlier this week it had been informed by a cable provider that it wants to resell services, but stopped short of identifying the cable company involved. Multiple sources of
Bloomberg allege that it was Comcast that made the declaration of intent to Verizon, though neither company has confirmed this information.
"Obviously, the industry is moving. Cable is going to do what they're going to do, and we're going to do what we're going to do," advised Shammo.
While Comcast has
already revealed it is considering offering some form of cellular service in the future, the mechanics of the service are still unknown. New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin suggests the service could leverage the existing network of approximately 10 million Wi-fi hotspots across the cable network, with the potential to use Verizon for coverage away from hotspots. This could potentially halve the network costs compared to a traditional wireless service, and could allow Comcast to offer such a service for as little as $25 per month, per line.
Top