Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Comcast and Charter In Talks With Sprint To Offer Wireless Service (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the art-of-the-deal dept.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Sprint's merger talks with T-Mobile are temporarily on hold while the carrier mulls over a number of potential deals with the United States' two biggest cable companies, Comcast and Charter. While Comcast is already using Verizon's wireless service under their own name, the company may want to use Sprint's network as well. Charter doesn't have a wireless phone offering yet, but the company's CEO indicated last year that it has every intention of launching one. The Verge reports: Such a deal would likely involve the two cable companies making an investment in Sprint, which the carrier would then use to build out its network, generally known to be the worst of the four major phone service providers. The Journal also reports that Comcast and Charter could make a bid to acquire Sprint outright, but it said the outcome was seen as less likely. Though they're usually an unlikely pairing, Comcast and Charter agreed in May to team up when making deals around wireless coverage for a full year. For the most part, both companies have been slowly losing TV subscribers year after year as customers shift over to online services. They see phone service as a new offering that could help to restore growth and lock in subscribers.

42 comments

  1. You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixed ba by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixed bag if you will get an iphone 5 or 6 or 7 all at the same price.

  2. Do not want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So two of the worst wired ISPs are offering wireless service from the worst mobile provider? Where do I sign up?!!!

    1. Re:Do not want by unixisc · · Score: 1

      My experience w/ Charter was pretty good. Never had any issues. Comcast has been okay - don't have cable from them, but internet speeds are often spotty.

    2. Re:Do not want by Kwyj1b0 · · Score: 1

      So two of the worst wired ISPs are offering wireless service from the worst mobile provider? Where do I sign up?!!!

      Wherever you want! That's the beauty of all these mergers. Soon there will just be different brand names all under one umbrella corporation. Similar to car rentals. That way they can trick customers in to thinking there is choice, when really they just suck for different market segments.

      And if you think this is monopolistic, think again. By carving up the marketplace, they will and won't compete at the same time!

  3. Anti trust. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For the love of god, If this isn't the very definition of abusing a monopoly to try and take another market I don't know what is.

    It's a troves horse. If this goes thru Comcast will buy sprint inside of 36 months.

  4. Comcast wireless by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now you can have the same level of suck, but on the go!

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Comcast wireless by Desler · · Score: 1

      That's Comcastic!

    2. Re:Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This! I'm getting 1/227 of the speed that I'm paying for. I can't cancel since I signed a one year contract. I'm supposed to have a 100 Mbps connection, but it's 0.44 Mbps:

      http://speedtest.xfinity.com/results/J499VDX52X1AM5Y

      Comcast needs to fix their problems for their current customers before branching out into other services.

    3. Re:Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You didn't buy a dedicated, guaranteed to be 100mbps connection 24/7. You bought service that states that you may achieve burst speeds up to 100mbps. There's a huge difference.

    4. Re:Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least your connection is up. Mine has been down for over a week, and Comcast keeps claiming it will be fixed before 5am the following day. Also, I have never gotten any credit for downtime. I call them every single day and get angry. It's sad that I actually look forward to venting now. Work has been frustrating, and I haven't taken a single day of vacation time in years, so it's really sad that I now look forward to venting at them. Despite that, my connection still hasn't been fixed, and I haven't gotten credit for the downtime. Comcast sure as hell needs to get their own house in order before trying new things.

    5. Re: Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It must suck to work there since the employees can't give credits or check on repair statuses.

    6. Re: Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In my state, cable companies only have to provide service for seven days in a month in order to bill for the entire month. Comcast certainly takes advantage of that.

    7. Re:Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do you reply to yourself? Everyone knows you are the "slow Seattle Internet" guy.

    8. Re: Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should be happy it works at all. I've been waiting for six years for Comcast to finish their install to my house. My neighbors on both sides have service.

    9. Re: Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I love how they claim their own Speedtest isn't valid.

    10. Re:Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      charter wouldn't be any better. they have a larger presence in small rural markets than comcast does... places where sprint's owned network doesn't even come close to covering and you roam (voice only, no data) on verizon (formerly alltel) towers.

      and charter is comcast's equal in the total suckage department. i had a sales guy today swear up and down that i could get $75 voice and data with no contracts, fees, gimmicks or taxes. i had to kick him out after pointing out that they do indeed charge additional taxes here and that $75 price comes with a built-in (i.e. basically a contracted) price increase after 12 months. sorry charlie, i'll take my five 9s with the phone company instead of outages every other day.

    11. Re:Comcast wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry for giving this irrelevant information. But if you wanna sell the wireless service as mobile. You can check this: https://bsscommerce.com/magent...

  5. Re:You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was that supposed to be funny?

  6. Wait wha??!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slashdot conventional knowledge is that all wireless and landline in the USA is comprised of monopolies. HOW CAN THIS STORY BE TRUE?

    1. Re:Wait wha??!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy strawman, Batman! Either way, most people barely have any choice especially if you want service faster than 10 mbps.

      At the FCC's 25Mbps download/3Mbps upload broadband standard, there are no ISPs at all in 30 percent of developed census blocks and only one offering service that fast in 48 percent of the blocks. About 55 percent of census blocks have no 100Mbps/10Mbps providers, and only about 10 percent have multiple options at that speed.

      At the 10Mbps/1Mbps threshold—which captures slower DSL technology in addition to cable and fiber—about 90 percent of census blocks have at least two providers. These numbers exclude satellite, which is available nearly everywhere but has high latency and often low data caps.

      Even these numbers overstate the amount of competition, because an ISP might offer service to only part of a census block. The percentage of households with choice is thus even lower.

      https://arstechnica.com/inform...

    2. Re:Wait wha??!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sprint, Sprint rebranded as Virgin Mobile USA. And now Sprint rebranded as Comcast and/or Charter.

      Yep... what a wealth of choices. It's not like they all use the same towers and provide the same level of service.

  7. Xfinity Mobile... not so bad it's a VZW MVNO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They offer two options: $45 unlimited* or $12/gig per line, up to 5 lines, you can mix and match. Caveat - you have to buy a new phone from them and your only options are the LG X Power, or current iPhones/Samsung flagship models. On per gig devices, the usage is shared, and there's a 100mb minimum threshhold below which your service is $0. If you use 200mb on one line and 650mb on the other line, you'll pay $12. If you use 650mb on each of two lines, you'll pay $24. If you use 650mb on each of three lines, you'll pay $24.

    Plus taxes and fees of course. I've spent lots of time talking to the call agents they've staffed, they seem well informed and friendly, and the automated services like porting numbers worked in a matter of minutes.
    g=

  8. "Though they're usually an unlikely pairing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh I don't know, some suffering-aficionado somewhere probably signs up for multiple ISP's just for "the experience"...

  9. merge merge merge by markdavis · · Score: 2

    What is with this near-obsessive "need" for all these TV, cable, ISP, phone, cell, and production companies to merge? We want choice, not "bundling." My wireless phone company has nothing to do with cable TV or my ISP. I really think the anti-trust authorities should step in and break up all these completed and prospective mergers. They are bad for consumers, bad for the economy, and bad for the country. It is not a free market when consumers are not free to make choices. I can see where it might be OK for T-Mobile and Sprint to join forces to compete with Verizon and AT&T, but that is as far as I would go.

    1. Re:merge merge merge by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Actually I do want bundling. I get phone, TV, ISP, home security, and wireless phone from one provider. Makes life easier for me.

    2. Re:merge merge merge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And then you bend over and take it up the ass without lube every other day?

    3. Re:merge merge merge by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Why ever other day? Every day!

    4. Re:merge merge merge by nasch · · Score: 2

      Choice is exactly what they don't want you to have.

    5. Re:merge merge merge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > What is with this near-obsessive "need" for all these TV, cable, ISP, phone, cell, and production companies to merge?

      Are you seriously asking?

      In case you are, it makes the merging companies more money. By reducing the diversity of companies in a given business, you reduce the ability of a shopper (whether that shopper is John Q. Public looking for phone service, or Jane Q. Fatcat looking to license a TV show) to vote with their wallet and go somewhere else. This reduces the amount of money the company must spend in marketing, lets them spend less on payroll by laying off redundant parts of the merged workforce, and increases the amount of money they can charge for the same service.

      It's a win, win, win for the management of the merging companies.

    6. Re:merge merge merge by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      OTOH, one bad billing fuckup will screw up your phone, TV, ISP, home security, and wireless phone.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    7. Re:merge merge merge by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      They are merging because shareholders want them to keep the revenue growth steady at the very least if not increasing. Because they are very large companies already it's very hard for them to do this organically (getting new subscribers, having existing customers sign up for more services). When you are a $10M company it's easier to meet your 5% growth target than when you are a $100B company in a stagnant market. So the companies merge, create partnerships, and find other ways to get their growth boosted.

  10. Can you hear me now? by fred911 · · Score: 1

    Can you hear me now? No? Ah.. must be Sprint...

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    1. Re:Can you hear me now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Make fun of the data service all you want, but Sprint's voice service is pretty fantastic.
      I know no one cares anymore, but I only need voice and text myself.

  11. Cyber by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .... that's it, just cyber.

  12. Re:You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixed by sconeu · · Score: 2

    So they offer "Up to iPhone 7"?

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  13. Re:You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixed by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    it's comcast! do you want to add hbo for $17.99?

  14. Re:You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixed by Desler · · Score: 1

    Adding HBO on Comcast only costs $10 like pretty much every other cable company.

  15. Re:You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Every time Sprint gets some major investment funding, the result is always shitty. Now here we have two shitty cable companies investing in Sprint...gee, I wonder how this will turn out.

  16. Re: You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Plus taxes, fees, and additional required bundles.

  17. Maes me sick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wanted wireless to bury theses motherfuckers not these motherfuckers to bury wireless.

  18. Worst cable bundled with worst phone by sarbonn · · Score: 1

    Two of the worst cable companies with the worst customer service records are now going to be bundled with a phone provider that drops the most calls. Where do I sign up?

    --
    Sarbonn's blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/blog
  19. Tv by ceveljcki · · Score: 1

    Hi, my name is Tea and I come from Slovenia. And I totaly agree with marcdavis. You can also find me on . Best regards, Tea