It’s a defensive play by the cable companies, says one analyst.<\/b>
\nNEW YORK\u2014Only last month, Comcast unveiled plans for Xfinity Mobile, a new wireless service that launches mid-year and that leverages the Verizon Wireless network. On Monday, Comcast announced a wireless partnership with another cable giant, Charter Communications, to \u201cexplore potential opportunities for operational cooperation\u201d and \u201cto accelerate and enhance each company\u2019s ability to participate in the national wireless marketplace.\u201d
Charter has a separate reseller agreement with Verizon and has had designs on launching its own wireless service in 2018. It isn\u2019 t clear if this new partnership will speed up Charter\u2019s launch, or for that matter will increase the likelihood that either or both might try to snatch up T-Mobile or Sprint, the nation’s third and fourth-largest wireless carriers.
In the short run, however, the consumer impact is likely to be modest.
Charter hasn\u2019 t spelled out details for what its consumer wireless offering will look like. It purchased Time Warner Cable last year and operates the Spectrum broadband brand.
Under the upcoming Xfinity Mobile service, subscribers will pay $45 or $65 per month per line up to five lines, for \u201cunlimited, “ with the lower monthly price reserved for customers on Comcast\u2019s \u201cbest\u201d X1 video packages, typically those that start around $150 per month. Unlimited talk and text is included and there\u2019s no per line access fee.
\u201cI think the overall impact for consumers will be low, \u201d says Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner. \u201cBoth companies will only sell to their own customers in their footprint. This remains a defensive play, but now with some better economics for the Comcast and Charter. Comcast’s offer continues to be great for people who love cable TV but don’t use wireless. We don’t know yet how aggressive or meek Charter’s consumer offer will be
In a joint release announcing the alliance, Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said, \u201cat Charter, we have a tremendous opportunity in front of us in the wireless space. Within our footprint, our network is perfectly suited to provide the data-rich wireless services that customers are increasingly demanding. By working with the team at Comcast, we can not only speed Charter\u2019s entry into the marketplace, it will also enable us to provide more competition and drive costs down for consumers at a similar national scale as current wireless operators.\u201d
For his part, Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts said, \u201cWe\u2019 re looking forward to launching Xfinity Mobile to our customers in the coming weeks and are excited about this opportunity to work with Charter to explore ways we can make our respective wireless initiatives more efficient and cost effective. \u201cBoth of our companies have regional wireless businesses using the same 4G LTE network, and by working together our goal is to create even better experiences for our customers.\u201d
The agreements that Comcast and Charter have with Verizon Wireless are under what the industry refers to as an MVNO, shorthand for Mobile Virtual Network Operator.
Email: ebaig @usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter<\/p>\n

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