Comcast plans to trial a wireless service after activating an agreement with Verizon Communications to use its network, Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of the US cable giant, has said.
Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) plans to trial a wireless service after activating an agreement with Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) to use its network, Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of the US cable giant, has said.
Asked during an earnings call about the agreement with Verizon, inked three years ago, Roberts (pictured) said “it takes about six months to activate the MVNO”. He did not, however, make it clear when this six month period begins or ends.
After it abandoned its takeover of Time Warner Cable in April amid regulatory opposition, Comcast, the largest cableco in the US, has been seeking out new growth opportunities. Like other pay-TV providers, it is also looking for ways to counteract cord-cutting.
Roberts noted that the company plans “to trial some things and test some things after we activate”, saying it will update people on progress.
“But it is an opportunity to take the network and the investments we made, the successful investments that we have made, and try and see if we can continue relationships and product information that the team is working on.”
Roberts did not elaborate but stressed that the company believes wireless “is an important area” for consumers, adding that it has seen “incredible success” with its Wi-Fi network.
Last week, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said Comcast, TWC, Bright House Networks and Cox Communications may be preparing to exercise their option, under a 2012 deal to sell spectrum to Verizon, to resell the mobile giant’s services under an MVNO model.
As for the 2016 spectrum auction, Roberts said subsidiary NBC will participate in the reverse part of the process that will see broadcasters sell airwaves to the FCC. However, the company has yet to decide whether the cable arm of the business will take part in the subsequent ‘future auction’, which will see operators bid for the airwaves sold by broadcasters.
Comcast results for Q3 generally exceeded analysts’ expectations, with revenues up 11.2% year-on-year to US$18.7bn. The Cable Communications unit generated revenues of US$11.7bn, up 6.3% year-on-year, which Comcast said was driven by increases of 10.2% in high-speed internet, 19.5% in business services and 3.3% in video.
It said it boosted its total customer relationships by 156,000 to 27.4 million in the quarter, a 90.2% improvement on the result in Q3 last year, primarily driven by double-product relationships.
Video subscriber numbers dropped by 48,000, but this was 41% lower than the decline a year ago. MoffettNathanson Research analyst Craig Moffett noted that its video subscriber base has contracted by about 0.5% over the past year compared with a pay TV industry run rate of 0.7%, meaning it is taking back video share.
Broadband subscribers rose by 320,000, while voice customers were up by 17.3%.
Moffett said that while Wall Street has come to regard Comcast as somewhat “stodgy” in the wake of its failed bid for TWC and rival Charter’s later agreement to acquire it and Bright House Networks, there are signs that it may yet prove itself “the industry’s truest innovator”.
As well as the potential move into wireless, he said it “is Comcast that is now leading the industry in competing with the telcos in large enterprise services. And it is Comcast that, at long last, is leading the charge with new usage-based pricing models in broadband”.
Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker also believes Comcast is “doing all the right things”.
“Comcast is continually testing the waters in a disciplined way, and we like the investments in the core business, which are clear in the consistent sub results.
