It’s official: Comcast will be getting into the mobile business in 2017, using a “Wi-Fi-first” approach.
Speaking at an investor conference, CEO Brian Roberts said that by mid-2017 Comcast will launch a mobile service using Verizon wholesale services and Comcast’s own network of 15 million public Wi-Fi hotspots.
As so often is the case in communication markets, innovations pioneered by smaller firms, or conducted on a limited basis, are upstaged by service providers able to bring scale to bear.
Other service providers, including Republic Wireless and Google Fi, also use a “Wi-Fi-first” approach for mobile connectivity. But Comcast has the scale (customer relationships, corporate will, financial assets) to move the whole market.
For a mobile market already in the throes of raging competition, now comes Comcast. In the early going, the existing mobile service providers will not lose too much share. Longer term, Comcast is going to be a force.
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