Fixed Wireless Competition's Durability Surprising, Comcast CFO Says
The durability of fixed wireless access (FWA) competition has been somewhat surprising, Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong said Thursday. Speaking at Citi's Global TMT Conference, Armstrong said FWA will be a permanent competitor. Separately, at the Bank of America Securities Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, Charter Communications CFO Jessica Fischer said FWA has been an effective competitor, but its growth will slow since wireless carriers need that capacity for their mobile businesses.
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For Charter, FWA's biggest competitive impact is in areas where the company isn't facing a fiber overbuilder and FWA represents the new competitor, she said. Charter's mobile product and its bundle packaging have helped it compete, she noted, adding that the company remains on track to build out its network to pass an additional 400,000 rural locations this year. Charter also will finish 2025 with its citizens broadband radio service network deployed in 23 markets.
Armstrong said Comcast has always anticipated that there would be fiber competition across most of its footprint, but "pretty intense" overbuilding is making that arrive sooner. Comcast's network can do 1+ Gbps speeds now and is on the path to multi-gig symmetrical speeds, keeping it competitive with fiber, he added.
Comcast's six key growth businesses -- residential broadband, wireless, theme parks, business services, studios and streaming -- make up 60% of its revenue, Armstrong said, noting that the other 40% generate cash but aren't growing. He said that pending the sale of Sky Germany and the spinoff of Comcast's U.S. cable networks, as well as growth of those six business areas, they will account for 70% of revenue within a couple of years.
Comcast's more than 20 million Wi-Fi hot spots let it offload more than 90% of its mobile traffic, "and we have a spectrum position" if the company wants to do more, Armstrong said. But Comcast remains content with its mobile virtual network operator agreement with Verizon, he added. A big challenge remains lack of consumer awareness about its wireless offering, he said, although Q2 saw a record number of wireless subscriber additions, and Q3 should see similar.
Asked about Charter's pending $34.5 billion purchase of Cox Communications (see 2505160060), Fischer said Cox being relatively under-penetrated in its markets in mobile and video represents "a real opportunity." Cox assets include product sets targeting commercial customers that Charter lacks, Fischer said, and they will let New Charter better compete against national operators and invest in areas such as AI. She said New Charter will be known as Cox Communications, though it will use Charter's Spectrum brand across its combined footprint.
Fischer also said Charter is about to start a marketing push for the multiple streaming apps that are included in its video offering. Asked if the company anticipates growing its video business, Fischer said just stabilizing video would be a success. With broadband and mobile revenue growing, a smaller drag from video would mean "the trajectory of the broader business is in a different place."