| Thursday, September 19, 2024 |
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Welcome to the first issue of the CFX Download, a synthesis of viewpoints from leading executives, gleaned from Cablefax editors, delivered as an extensive overview of the industry’s current landscape so that you can leverage it to make informed, strategic decisions for your business.
With Charter and Comcast forging the way, a growing number of cable operators are embracing mobile service as part of their product offering. In recent months, Breezeline, Blue Ridge and Mediacom joined the mobile party, and several of those on the sidelines are ready to launch their own MVNO—an arrangement where cable operators offer mobile through their own networks and by reselling a mobile network operator’s network. Today, MVNO’s market share in the U.S. is less than 5%, but cable’s wireless share is rapidly picking up steam, accounting for 54% of all wireless phone net additions in the U.S. in 2Q24. And that figure doesn’t include private companies such as Cox Communications that don’t report quarterly metrics. As the runway for broadband additions shortens, mobile is proving to be a lucrative venture—not to mention it makes internet customers stickier.
For those companies developing their mobile roadmaps, there is a lot of work to be done. Midco is working to launch service by late 2025 or early 2026. Schurz Communications quietly launched its Flight Mobile offering this summer through the NCTC MVNO agreement; it began with a soft launch with its Antietam Broadband system in Hagerstown, Maryland, and will use learnings from the rollout to expand mobile to its five other broadband properties. Here’s what they and others had to say—we think you’ll find it applicable to your own businesses. |
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John Reardon
Schurz Communications
President/CEO |
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 I think mobile is a churn mitigator. So, in other words, we don't ever think we'll be a big wireless company. Instead, this will be something that we’ll add to our broadband offering to allow customers to have a better price combination. And so [it will] really help us with churn mitigation… We've been working on it for a while, and we're going to launch… at our Antietam location in Maryland, and then we'll take it to our other properties. We decided to launch it in one place first.” |
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Diego Anderson
Schurz Communications
EVP, Broadband |
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| We’re using NCTC, so we got that backing and we’re very excited about that. We'll make sure that we have our customer service teams and our sales teams all familiar with the product solutions before we roll it out. It'll be a soft launch, and [we’ll] get familiar with all the things that we need to do from the end-to-end product solutions—how you care for it, how you sell it, how you provision it. With that, the way we're thinking about this is it's another tool in our toolkit to help customers solve problems. We want to be able to bundle solutions with the products that we offer, starting off with the reliable broadband pipe, preferably fiber, but reliable broadband pipe and make that in a compelling way so that we have other features and solutions that the customer can come to us for their communications needs.” |
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Ben Dold
Midco
COO |
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| It is a lot of work, but we’re very excited about it. We're focused right now on our go-to-market strategy—what is Midco Mobile going to look like, when the first customer can order it, what does the retail presence looks like, what's the device strategy. From a billing and provisioning perspective, how it will be integrated into our website and from a support perspective… Our whole strategy of success is underpinned by having a best-in-class customer experience, so we want to make sure that that scaffolds to mobile as well. We have a tremendous amount of brand equity. Our customers trust us; they're loyal. So, we want to make sure that when we bring this product to market, it's just a natural extension of their Midco experience. You have to be methodical about each aspect.” |
| WHAT ABOUT THE iPHONE 16 LAUNCH? |
| This week, stores will receive the new iPhone 16. There’s plenty of excitement over this model as it combines GenAI, prompting some to predict that there will be an increase is the number of consumers upgrading their phones. For new market entrants, the iPhone 16 debut is a timely opportunity to market to customers. Comcast, Charter, Altice USA and other landscape stalwarts are taking notice—Comcast has ramped up its maximum promotional offer to $1,000 off the new iPhone 16 with eligible trade-in, and customers signing up for its Unlimited Plus plan can also get a second line of Unlimited free for one year. |
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JD Myers
Cox Communications
East Region SVP |
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| The wireless industry is one of the most competitive markets that you can see. When you look at a retailer selling wireless products, look two inches to your left and there’s another wireless product seller—and the switching is simple. When Apple introduces a new product, it’s showtime. The last four months of the year are the number one sales months to sell—67% of all wireless sales happen in that period. So, this is our Super Bowl that’s about to start, and we’re all excited about it.” |
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Toni Murphy
Astound Broadband
COO |
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| We're getting ready for Apple NPI [New Product Introduction] season, where they're going to be giving incredible offers and deals on phones and holiday promos. When you have that, it can drag customers away from us. It’s important to understand that convergence has ramifications, not only for wireless, but also for our broadband product. When you look at it apples-to-apples, I think we're in a great position to grow that product and give consumers more choice, which is what they want. But the first thing is to have patience, because it's going to take time to build momentum and brand recognition and for customers to have faith that we can deliver it the way they've got the ILECs are.” |
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Jason Armstrong
Comcast Corp.
CFO |
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| We've had good handset trade-in programs. To the extent we see some sort of super cycle in handsets driven by AI—I wouldn't say we're voting on it that way—but if it does happen, we're probably positioned pretty well to go play a role there. We've got 12% share of our broadband base in wireless right now. Our gross add share is significantly higher than that. Our equilibrium share over time is a lot higher than that as well. So, we’re confident that we're still a challenger in this business and handsets potentially could be a lever. I'm not sure I'm predicting a super cycle, but to the extent that the consumer drives a super cycle out of this because it really is that incremental of a product, we will be ready and we'll be prepared for it.” |
| Operators that have rolled out mobile are quickly learning that the same playbook for broadband doesn’t apply. Marketing is often noted as one of the biggest challenges, with customers not usually thinking of their broadband provider when it comes to mobile needs. There’s a consensus that the industry is still in the education phase—both for consumers and investors. |
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Heather McCallion
Breezeline
VP, New Business & Business Transformation |
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| We expected that the vast majority of our mobile customers would come from our existing customers, and that is indeed what’s happening. But the way we market to those customers’ needs to be different. We don’t have the marketing teams necessarily built up to fire off emails and new offers every other day, which is what’s required, if you watch what Charter, Comcast, Verizon and AT&T do. It’s a constant shift in tone, the messaging, the offer, because the moments that matter for mobile are very different from the moments that matter in providing broadband—especially for existing customers who don’t necessarily need to make a change.” |
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John Pascarelli
Mediacom
EVP, Operations |
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| One benefit I think we’ve gained is our employees get excited because all of a sudden, they feel like, ‘We’ve got a new fight to fight.’ We have a new product. We have an opportunity. They’re seeing the new competition, and they like the fact that they have new weapons and new ammunition. It’s great because you’re always trying to excite your employee base.” |
| Despite mobile’s growing momentum in the cable space, there are some providers who don’t yet see the value proposition. Perhaps it’s their footprint’s geographic makeup or the fact they’re in the middle of a fiber upgrade cycle, but for now, it’s wait and see. |
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Julie Laulis
Cable One
CEO |
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| It’s interesting to watch today to see where wireless companies are either building or buying wired providers… that being said, the MVNO possibility is something that we look at and model and remodel multiple times a year. It needs to be economically viable and compelling to both us and our customers over the long term. It is just one of the products, capabilities and partnerships that will serve customers and be monetized by companies like ours over the long term. If we do decide to jump into the wireless world, I think we have options available to us that get us off to a relatively quick start.” |
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Katherine Gessner
MCTV
President |
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| It's not on our short-term roadmap right now. We've got to get our fiber broadband construction done and clear the deck of that project, because it's all-consuming. I can't throw more onto my team right now. I want to make sure if and when we do launch that we have the people bandwidth to do it properly and have a plan. We like to chase shiny objects sometimes, but we want to make sure we can focus on it right. We only get one chance to say to the customer, ‘Hey, we’ve got mobile.’ And if it’s a bad experience, they’re never coming back.” |
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