The promotion underscores the growing competition for wireless customers, with cable providers like Charter and traditional wireless carriers all trying to top each other. — Pixabay
Charter Communications Inc, the company behind the Spectrum cable service, is making an unusual offer to attract new mobile-phone customers: Sign up for four wireless lines and get free home Internet service for life.
Customers can obtain four lines and Internet service for US$120 (RM497) a month. It includes caveats, of course, such as a cap on data speed, and it only applies to people who transfer lines from a competing carrier. If you cancel the mobile lines, you lose the freebie.
The promotion underscores the growing competition for wireless customers, with cable providers like Charter and traditional wireless carriers all trying to top each other. Charter offers its wireless service through a partnership with Verizon Communications Inc. Charter chief executive officer Chris Winfrey recently told analysts the deal is gaining traction among a subset of customers. Many of the customers are also opting to pay more for faster plans.
"That’s a relatively small audience that’s willing to convert over four lines in one single fell swoop,” Winfrey said on an Oct 31 conference call. "But it is a good way to express value to consumers.”
Like its pay-TV peer Comcast Corp, Charter has been losing Internet customers to fiber and 5G home Internet plans offered by major mobile providers. Charter has fought back by bundling in streaming services at no added cost to subscribers. It’s also offering a year of free mobile service to its Internet customers.
The battle for mobile-phone subscribers is poised to get even more fierce as Verizon goes on a cost-cutting drive, including layoffs, under new leadership. Shares of the three major phone companies declined on the news last month that Dan Schulman, former chief executive offer of PayPal Holdings Inc, was taking over at Verizon, reflecting investor fears of a price war.
But as pay-TV providers lost Internet customers to their wireless competitors, they appear to be getting bundled mobile deals right. Charter added 493,000 mobile lines in the third quarter, bringing its total to 11.4 million. – Bloomberg
