Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile Customer Count Is Expected to Skyrocket This Year

Xfinity Mobile.

Comcast officially launched its wireless phone service Xfinity Mobile last May, and within the first five months, the company attracted hundreds of thousands of users. Now analysts say the service is on track to grow even faster this year and into next year.

According to a report from the New York research firm New Street Research, reported by Fierce Wireless, Xfinity Mobile will double its number of customers in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared with the fourth quarter of 2017. And eventually, the wireless service could add 2 million customers each year.

“We expect Comcast’s wireless net adds to remain sluggish in the first half of 2018, and then to ramp sharply in the second half of the year,” the report’s authors wrote.

And in general, Cable companies like Comcast and Charter that are launching their own wireless services will begin to shake up the hold that traditional wireless carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile have on the market, according to the analysis. The report found that cable companies will acquire up to 15 percent of all postpaid customers in their target footprints by 2020.

At the start of 2018, Comcast reported that it had connected 380,000 customer lines by the end of 2017. In October of 2017, it was estimated that the service surpassed 250,000 subscribers.

Xfinity Mobile offers unlimited data for $45 per month for existing internet and TV customers. Subscribers can also pay by the gig. Xfinity Mobile charges $12 per GB.

At the start of the year, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said Xfinity Mobile is a “really simple business plan that can scale,” according to Fierce Wireless. “We’re finding that the by-the-gig approach is working. It’s early still — the branding is just kicking in, and we’re expanding distribution to our existing retail locations. We’re well positioned going into 2018 with mobile.”