Talk in the industry is rife that U.S. cable operator Comcast is on the verge of launching a mobile service using Verizon Wireless’ network.
Speaking on Verizon’s third quarter results call with analysts earlier this week, Verizon’s chief financial officer Fran Shammo admitted that an unnamed party – or parties – from the cable sector is planning to execute on a three year old mobile virtual network operator agreement.
"We have an existing MVNO agreement and we were informed that they are going to execute on that agreement," Shammo said.
He declined to comment further, noting that discussions are under NDA.
Verizon’s role as an MVNO host for the cable industry was imposed upon in it in August 2012 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved its plan to acquire US$3.9 billion worth of spectrum from various cable operators, Comcast included. The others were Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.
The regulator attached a number of conditions to the deal, including granting the cablecos the right to an MVNO or reseller agreement with Verizon Wireless with six months’ notice. There were also various cross-marketing provisions.
"This is a smart and efficient way for Comcast to deliver a broader array of wireless services, and is an efficient deployment of this spectrum," Comcast said, at the time.
There has been widespread media speculation in recent months that Comcast is keen to trigger the MVNO clause, and on Wednesday Bloomberg cited unnamed sources as saying that it has approach ed Verizon on the subject.
"Obviously, the industry is moving," Shammo said on the results call. "Cable is going to do what they are going to do and we’re
going to do what we’re going to do."
