Charter Communications indicated last week that it expects to introduce its own wireless service by the middle of 2018.
Chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said on the company’s third quarter earnings call that it “learned a lot” under its wireless partnership with Comcast and remains on track to launch in the second quarter of next year.
“When offered as part of our bundle, we expect Spectrum-branded wireless services to drive more sales of our core products and to create longer customer lives,” Rutledge said.
The cable giants announced their partnership just as Comcast launched its low-cost Xfinity Mobile service in an effort to retain existing TV and internet customers. Both companies previously signed agreements to utilize Verizon’s cell towers.
Reports indicated that about 200,000 people signed up for Xfinity Mobile in its initial months. Although that level of subscribers pales to the top carriers, it could eventually create additional price pressure in the wireless sector.
Rutledge added that although the companies could potentially pursue joint wireless operations in the future, “there’s nothing to announce here today.”
Rutledge also praised Charter’s wireless field testing and said that its existing WiFi infrastructure “puts us in a position to uniquely scale deployment of new wireless small-cell products.”
“We’re going down the path in investing in our network for a future that we see as very bright, which is high-capacity wireless attached to high-capacity wireline,” Rutledge said.
Filed Under: Carriers
