Charter Communications said last week that it expects to join fellow cable giant Comcast in the wireless market beginning next year.
The companies earlier this year announced a partnership to advance their respective wireless capabilities just as Comcast introduced its Xfinity Mobile service.
Charter Chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said on the company’s third quarter earnings call that it remains on track to launch its own service in the second quarter of 2018.
Rutledge added that Charter “learned a lot” from its agreement with Comcast, which launched the low-cost Xfinity Mobile in an effort to retain existing cable and internet customers in an era of cord-cutting. Reports indicated that about 200,000 people signed up for Comcast’s service in its initial months.
Although that number paled in comparison to top wireless carriers, it could put additional pressure on wireless prices.
“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.
He added that although the companies could potentially pursue joint wireless operations in the future, “there’s nothing to announce here today.” Both companies previously signed agreements to utilize Verizon’s cell towers.
Rutledge also lauded Charter’s wireless field testing and predicted that its existing WiFi infrastructure “puts us in a position to uniquely scale deployment of new wireless small-cell products” needed for 5G networks.
“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.
