Charter is planning to debut its Spectrum Mobile wireless service on June 30, according to DSLReports.
The report, which cited an unnamed source familiar with the operator’s plan, also indicated that Charter’s wireless service will “largely mirror” Comcast’s pricing for its Xfinity Mobile service. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge hinted at that possibility on a company earnings call in early February, when he said Comcast “did a really nice job” with its pricing model for its mobile service, which launched early last year.
Like Comcast, Charter will offer broadband customers unlimited data for $45 per month, or users can pay $12 per gigabyte, DSLReports reported.
Charter has not commented about the report, but officials previously said the company was planning a mid-year launch of Spectrum Mobile.
It’s also not surprising Charter plans to emulate the pricing of Xfinity Mobile, which finished the first quarter with 577,000 customer lines. Both wireless services are based on similar MVNO deals with Verizon, and Charter and Comcast previously struck a partnership for wireless research. Last month, they announced a joint venture to develop and design unified backend systems for their respective mobile services.
Charter recently launched a field trial of its wireless service with about 5,000 employees, and has modified retail stores and set up call centers ahead of the commercial launch, Rutledge said in April on the company’s first quarter earnings call.
Ultimately, Charter aims to use its Spectrum Mobile service to attract and retain cable customers through bundling options, he noted.
