Comcast is not exactly beloved by customers. The cable company and Internet provider has a reputation for shady pricing practices.
It advertises one price, but does not mention all the fees and other costs consumers actually have to pay. You might be buying a $25 skinny cable bundle, but it will actually cost you more than twice that once you pay the local broadcast and sports fees.
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This is a company that was longer a monopoly, but which still operates largely as if consumers don’t have a choice. In some cases, at least with internet, they actually may not have a choice.
Some markets only have one provider, and while there are alternatives like Elon Musk’s Starlink, they are expensive and impractical.
Still, it seems hard to believe that Comcast would think it could expand its business into areas where consumers do have a choice. But, when you target a market where AT&T and Verizon are leading players, how much customers hate you is relative.
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When you’re weighing your options between three companies that aren’t exactly famous for customer service, it’s reasonable to think that price may become the deciding factor.
As it entered the wireless phone market, Comcast has actually been a price leader. That actually puts it in a decent position to win market share from AT&T, Verizon, and maybe even the somewhat better T-Mobile.
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Comcast sees a huge growth opportunity
Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong spoke at the recent MoffettNathanson 2025 Media, Internet & Communications Conference on May 15. He was surprisingly candid about his company's growth plans.
“We talk about these six growth drivers across the company. And so on the content and experience side, it's parks, as we talked about. It's studios and streaming. On the connectivity side of the business, it's wireless residential broadband and business services. So if you were to take those and sort of say, what's the size of the sandbox in each one of those that we're playing in? Wireless is the one that sticks out, as this is the largest sandbox of anything,” he said.
Comcast offers discount wireless service that uses its WiFi network wherever possible. When it's not, the company's phone jumped to Verizon's network.
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That's a lower-cost way to offer wireless service, since it does not require constantly investing in a network. Armstrong sees wireless as a massive growth opportunity.
“It's 80 billion is residential broadband. 200 billion is the size of the wireless market. So it's a logical place to be focused where, if you look at our share of that sandbox, it's probably the smallest out of the six. So it's sort of this neat opportunity where it's biggest sandbox, we currently have the smallest share. So that's a ton of room to grow into,” he added.
Comcast leans on the power of free
While it does advertise its wireless service broadly, Armstrong pointed out that it has a core audience that it can reach more easily.
“I'd just point out, we're selling into our broadband customer base, right? So that is a very different sales and acquisition cycle than someone that's got to go attract a customer that they don't currently have,” he said.
Comcast's cost structure also allows it to do something Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile can't.
“But then there's the decision on the back of that. Is this a standalone business that you're thinking purely about in revenue and EBITDA terms for the wireless business? Or can you go reinvest, right, and drive outsized growth, maybe accelerate your growth?” he shared.
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Comcast has decided to bet big on growth.
“We're leaning in, we do have — we've got free line out there for a year. Gives us incredible monetization after that year. We're starting to tier into different segments. We've got a premium segment we just announced. It's a little bit higher price point, but still a huge discount to the wireless industry. So fits nicely, but gets us a little bit more in the handset game,” he added.
Comcast's Xfinity wireless brand is currently offering a free mobile line for a year to new and existing customers who subscribe to select Xfinity Internet plans. That offer includes both new and existing customers.
