Fixed wireless access (FWA) services from the likes of T-Mobile, Verizon and others have gained steam perhaps faster than many in the broadband industry thought they would. But Comcast President Mike Cavanagh reiterated the company’s belief that the technology won’t stand up to consumers’ needs over the long term. That’s why Comcast more interested in protecting its high-end customers than chasing lower-end users who may have peeled away to give FWA a try.
“We want to stick to the strategy of playing the long game against a high demand for a high quality, best in class” product, he said during an investor conference on Wednesday. “We will, with selective offers and what’s right for different segments, answer some of the competitive threat. But we’re not going to lose sight of the bigger prize over the longer term.”
In support of Comcast’s stance, Cavanagh pointed to the fact that nearly a third of the operator’s customers are taking 1-gig speeds or higher, the number of devices on its network has doubled in recent years and its Wi-Fi footprint has grown to 22 million hotspots. The increase in usage is “staggering” and indicates consumers will soon need more than what FWA can offer, he argued.
That’s why Comcast believes the right move is “protecting the ARPU of the embedded base mid- to high-end at a moment when we’re seeing some competition particularly from fixed wireless at the lower end. That’s not where we see the long-term fight for growth and profits in the broadband business,” he explained.
Fiber
Of course, the same argument can’t be made about fiber’s ability to deliver the necessary speeds and capacity. While Cavanagh stated 45% of Comcast’s footprint is now overbuilt with fiber and that figure is expected to increase to 60% over the next few years, he brushed aside any suggestion that Comcast should be overly concerned.
“We live in a world and we have lived in a world where we’ve had to worry about fiber and compete against fiber,” he said. Comcast’s answer now is the same as it always has been: “build the best network out there,” Cavanagh added.
Rural
Fellow cable giant Charter Communications has been juicing net additions in part through an expansive rural build which got a boost from more than $1 billion in subsidies from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction in 2020.
Cavanagh said Comcast decided not to participate in RDOF in part due to concerns over the bidding process. But going forward, he noted rural build opportunities fueled by state and local grants as well as money from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program are certainly on its radar.
“We will be a participant in those, we don’t see any reason not to be. But it’s going to be opportunity by opportunity, market by market,” he concluded.