Comcast may eventually provide phone, broadband and video service...
Comcast may eventually provide phone, broadband and video services wirelessly, COO Steve Burke said when asked at a Goldman Sachs conference about spectrum it won in the FCC AWS auction (CD Sept 19 p7). The AWS licenses -- which…
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Comcast bid on through the SpectrumCo joint venture with other cable operators and Sprint -- covers 90% of the U.S. population with 20 MHz, Burke said: “There will be a major portion of video, voice and data that is consumed wirelessly” in the future. Asked about net neutrality, Burke said Comcast has no plans to charge websites for sending content over its network. Slowing customers’ access to popular websites like Google would be “probably the stupidest thing,” he said, describing net neutrality as “a debate that is very much a Washington and an industry debate and not something that has really taken hold of consumers.” Increasing customer use of websites with bandwidth-heavy content including YouTube could lead Comcast to increase download speeds, especially in places Verizon sells FiOS broadband, Burke said. Selling phone service to businesses, which Comcast may start on a large scale in 2007 or 2008, will be “the next growth engine” in 5-plus years, said Burke. Burke predicted Comcast will add basic video subscribers in the next 5 years because its package of phone, data and TV will remain competitive with Verizon. - JM