Comcast today announced that the company's much-hyped new Xfinity Mobile wireless service has gone live. The company website for the service is now up and running, and Comcast says the service should now be available to all of the company's existing customers. One catch: you need to be an existing Comcast Xfinity broadband subscriber to sign up for the service, which leans on Verizon's cellular network. As for pricing, Comcast says that triple play customers will pay $45 per line for unlimited (users get throttled to 1.5 Mbps after 20 GB) data, text and voice.
That same service will cost $65 per month if users only subscribe to Comcast broadband service, making it abundantly clear that Comcast's primary thrust here is trying to upsell customers to additional services.
"Most customers will save when they bundle," Comcast Mobile President Greg claimed when the company introduced the service recently. "We have a very efficient business model."
Comcast is also offering an option where users can pay $12 per GB of cellular data across all lines on an account. Under this option, Comcast took a page from other providers' play book, and will allow users to only pay for what they use. Comcast says folks in a single home can mix and match unlimited and per gig plans, and switch between the options without penalty.
The service leans predominantly on Comcast's growing network of WiFi hotspots, many of which exist in Comcast customer homes. In 2014 Comcast updated customer router firmware so that user routers provide free access to other Comcast customers passing near your home or apartment. And while users are supposed to be able to disable the feature, actually doing so has occasionally proven difficult.
While Comcast clearly hopes that it can use wireless to upsell users to additional services, the company may need to shore up its traditionally abysmal customer service if it wants these ambitions to reach fruition. Comcast is consistently rated among the worst at customer service in any industry in America, something that may get worse with the complication created by adding an additional billing option.
"We know we need to get better and improve the customer service and customer experience," Butz said. "We know the issue, I think we’re on it."
Let's hope so. A few things of note: Comcast has confirmed there will be
no seamless WiFi to LTE handoff at launch. You also
can't bring your own handset. There's some additional detail in Comcast's
original announcement and over at the
Xfinity Mobile website.