By now, it is old news that the big cablecos’ wireless efforts are a success story. This was not a preordained outcome, as cablecos made their first push into wireless as part of the Pivot joint venture with Sprint, which was a failure, as Fierce Wireless duly noted in 2008.
A round of applause is due for Xfinity Mobile, which now has 4.6 million subscribers. A second round of applause is for Spectrum Mobile, which now has 4.3 million subscribers. Recent adds have been at record levels, with unlimited family lines at $30/month as a factor.
The top two cable companies combine to cover roughly two-thirds of Americans. In these areas, Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile are effectively the fourth carrier, filling the void left by Sprint’s exit from the market.
Time for phase two, junior cable
Now, cable companies in the other one-third of the U.S. are throwing their hat into the ring. The third-largest cable company is Cox, which has 6.5 million customers across parts of 18 states. Mobile World Live recently reported that Cox is planning pilots of mobile service in Las Vegas, Omaha, and Hampton Roads, Virginia, with mobile advertising starting in August.
In July, WOW! announced that its new wireless service “is now available to customers across the company's entire footprint.” The cableco has a network that passes 1.9 million customers. Its wireless service is powered by ReachNext, an MVNE (mobile virtual network enabler). Reach Mobile also offers its own MVNO service. Reach Mobile and ReachNext are part of the same company.
An official from ReachNext informed me on August, 10 that it is working with “dozens” of cable companies about potential launches of wireless service. No specific companies were mentioned. The company has briefed me on its platform and seems quite confident about it, and the platform seems to be getting some attention from prospects. I expect more news on this in the future.
Per an August report by Mike Dano of Light Reading, the prospect of smaller cable companies offering wireless services is fertile soil. The article noted, "Cable industry association NCTC said it's exploring how it can offer MVNO options to its 700 member companies.”
Optimum Mobile
The other day, I was cleaning my kitchen and turned on the radio to hear some music. I heard an ad pitching Optimum services, including Optimum Mobile. This was confusing, as I live in the Kansas City area, and Kansas City is not an Optimum market. The radio station is based in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is an Optimum market.
I did some research and learned that Optimum is advertising quite aggressively. Optimum is airing this “Compare Optimum to Verizon: Save Over $950 a Year” TV ad, and it has aired roughly 500 times since early July. The ad is airing in the New York area, and it is strongly aimed at Verizon, which has Fios and wireless services in New York. Optimum Mobile now has 231,000 lines in service.
Mediacom evaluating mobile launch
Mediacom is "actively evaluating whether a compelling business case can be made for offering a Mediacom-branded mobile-phone service," as Jeff Baumgartner of Light Reading reported in February. Mediacom is the fifth largest U.S. cableco, serving markets largely in the Midwest and Southeast, passing 1.5 million customer locations in parts of 22 states.
Don’t forget about the stores
The $30/month unlimited family lines have been the major factor for strong recent growth of cable wireless counts, but I think the rise of cable stores has been another factor. Combined, there are well more than 1,000 Xfinity stores and Spectrum stores. The number is slowly growing, with more stores launching each month. Cox has 130 stores. Optimum has more than 100 stores, and the company has guided to 150-170 stores by the end of this year. Meanwhile, the number of carrier stores has been slipping modestly.
Hello, junior cable!
Cox is in beta, Optimum is making moves, WOW! has launched, and Mediacom is looking into it. Reach Mobile is in talks with dozens of smaller cablecos. An important trend for competition in 2022 is the rise of junior cable, the cable companies smaller than “the big two” – Comcast and Charter. This is welcome news in parts of the one-third of the U.S. where neither Xfinity Mobile nor Spectrum Mobile is available.
Remember Pivot? There is no guarantee of success for junior cable, but the lessons from the big two can help them succeed.
Jeff Moore is Principal of Wave7 Research, a wireless research firm that covers U.S. postpaid, prepaid, and smartphone competition. Jeff has 25 years of telecom industry experience, including 13 years of competitive intelligence work for Sprint. Follow him on Twitter @wave7jeff.
Industry Voices are opinion columns written by outside contributors—often industry experts or analysts—who are invited to the conversation by FierceWireless staff. They do not represent the opinions of FierceWireless.