Cablevision Bows Freewheel All-Wi-Fi Phone Service With Unlimited Data, Talk and Text
Cablevision is launching an all Wi-Fi phone service with unlimited data, talk and text, the company said in a news release Monday. Called Freewheel, it’s the “first all-WiFi service to be introduced by a cable provider,” the operator said. Freewheel…
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will use a Motorola Moto G smartphone that will work “exclusively” over Wi-Fi, and customers will have “automatic access” to Cablevision’s 1.1 million hot spot Wi-Fi network, it said. The service will be available starting in February, and cost $29.95 a month. The Moto G phone will cost Freewheel customers $99.95, and Cablevision Optimum Online customers will be able to get the Freewheel service for $9.95 monthly. Limited to Wi-Fi, the Freewheel service is unlikely to generate much revenue for Cablevision, said MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett in an email to investors. “The best Cablevision might hope for is to monetize the company’s WiFi footprint, even if only to a small degree, by lowering churn,” Moffett said. “Cablevision’s real game is almost certainly to use the new Freewheel service as a beta test for what will eventually be a WiFi-first, rather than WiFi-only, service.”