Altice says one of its first "cost cutting" efforts after acquiring Cablevision will be to shut down the cable company's relatively new "Freewheel" Wi-Fi calling service. Freewheel was launched last year offering non-Cablevision users unlimited data, texts and voice for $30 a month -- a price that dropped to just an additional $10 per month for Cablevision customers. The service used a Motorola G smartphone the company says is "optimized" for use with Freewheel, leaning heavily on Cablevision's growing footprint of Wi-Fi hotspots.
But according to the
Wall Street Journal, Altice has "given Cablevision the blessing" (read: demanded they do it) to close down Freewheel:
quote:
While Altice has told New York regulators it won’t reduce customer-facing jobs for four years, it is looking for other cuts. In the past few weeks, Altice has given Cablevision the blessing to close Freewheel, the Wi-Fi mobile service it launched last year.
Altice also plans to use some upcoming contract renewals to scale back the number of overall channels that will be made available to Cablevision customers. Altice has spent the last few weeks denying rumors that it's a
bit of a cheapskate, but the Journal's story doesn't do much to dismantle this belief, citing some complaints at Altice's other recent acquisition, Suddenlink:
quote:
But during a March “investment committee” meeting, executives from the company’s new owner, Altice NV, quizzed them on everything from the differences between various ice-machine suppliers to whether it was better to buy or lease. “A complete waste of people’s time and energy,” said one former Suddenlink employee.
Altice has a reputation as a hard-nosed cheapskate overseas, something that equates to cleaner balance sheets, but not always better service. For example, Altice-owned French carrier SFR jas repeatedly come under fire across the pond for trimming costs, but
failing to invest those funds into necessary network upgrades and customer support. And while eliminating Freewheel and taking a deep dive into ice-machine vendors may simply be Altice getting a more efficient hold on its new business holdings, whether this extends into service quality and upgrades for Suddenlink and Cablevision customers is something we'll be keeping an eye on.
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