Xfinity Voice Ends Free Battery Replacement, Citing Low Demand
Most Xfinity Voice customers don't want spare batteries for their residential phone service, so the company has opted not to provide them, Comcast said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-174. FCC staff had asked for information…
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about Comcast's backup battery policy for Xfinity Voice customers, and the company sells them for about $41 for its voice modem, Comcast said. Before February 2013, those batteries were free, and customers were notified when a battery was depleted and needed replacement, the company said. But only 13 percent of customers would follow through and get the replacements, and in 2014 fewer than 1 percent of Xfinity Voice customers bought backups, the company said. "It would be inequitable to require its entire residential voice customer base to support the significant costs of providing backup batteries to all customers when only a small fraction of those customers valued the batteries."