Charter and Comcast Announce Plans to Use T-Mobile 5G For Business Customers

telcodad

Comcast and Charter announced today that they would establish a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that will use T-Mobile’s 5G network to serve their wireless business customers, to be launched next year:

Charter, Comcast Ink T-Mobile MVNO Deal for Business
Cablefax - July 22, 2025
https://www.cablefax.com/distribution/charter-comcast-ink-t-mobile-mvno-deal-for-business

Charter and Comcast execs have both said repeatedly that they are happy with Verizon as their MVNO partner, but it sounds like there was room for improvement. Late Tuesday, the two unveiled a multi-year exclusive agreement with T-Mobile to use the carrier’s network starting next year to deliver mobile service to business customers across the country. The arrangement is solely focused on providing wholesale mobile connectivity to Charter’s and Comcast’s business customers, with the Verizon MVNO continuing to support residential and current business customers.

Comcast Business President Ed Zimmermann described the move as a “capital-light partnership,” with Charter Product EVP Danny Bowman saying it will allow the provider to “rapidly and cost-effectively bring even more value to our Spectrum Mobile business customers.” …..

The Comcast/Charter press release: https://corporate.charter.com/newsroom/charter-comcast-announce-agreement-to-leverage-t-mobile-5g-for-wireless-business-customers

hex0101

T-Mobile uses Comcast backhaul for their cell towers in my area (Comcast Business Cell Backhaul Service, or Standard Metro-E service?), and in a lot of places as well!

Also, in some areas, T-Mobile will use DOCSIS Cable Modems running on the Comcast network as a backup circuit for the cell site. Primary circuit would be with a different provider though (and be a fiber circuit).

videomatic3

Does this mean if we use comcast mobile it can roam between Verizon and tmobile seamlessly?

hex0101

videomatic3 Even if so, only business customers will be able to.

telcodad

videomatic3 Does this mean if we use comcast mobile it can roam between Verizon and tmobile seamlessly?

I don’t think so. This appears to be a separate MVNO network. From the press release:

This new agreement will focus solely on providing wholesale mobile connectivity to Charter’s and Comcast’s business customers. Charter and Comcast’s existing long-term MVNO partnership [with Verizon Wireless] will continue to support residential and current business customers.

kmax

I wonder how long the Verizon contract is for residential.

telcodad

kmax I wonder how long the Verizon contract is for residential.

Yeah, the details of the MVNO agreement have not been publicized. They last renegotiated the agreements back in 2020:

Verizon inks ‘expanded and extended’ MVNO deals with Comcast, Charter
Verizon’s Ronan Dunne said the operator’s new cable MVNO deals ensure that ’we’re their primary provider of connectivity for the foreseeable future.'
By Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading - November 11, 2020
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/verizon-inks-expanded-and-extended-mvno-deals-with-comcast-charter

What this new MVNO agreement with T-Mobile does is allow Comcast and Charter to now provide “wholesale mobile connectivity to Charter’s and Comcast’s business customers.”

Verizon’s strategic miscalculation and the new T-Mobile, cable alliance
The new business MVNO agreement between T-Mobile and cable MSOs Charter and Comcast ‘redefines the role of every major player,’ according to Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics. The deal puts pressure on Verizon and AT&T as the competitive landscape changes.
By Roger Entner, Analyst and Founder, Recon Analytics, Light Reading - July 23, 2025
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/verizon-s-strategic-miscalculation-and-the-new-t-mobile-cable-alliance

The exclusive MVNO agreement between T-Mobile and the Charter/Comcast cable operators is a foundational realignment of the US telecom landscape, born from a calculated, and ultimately failed, defensive strategy by Verizon. In an attempt to insulate its core small and midsized business (SMB) stronghold from wholesale channel conflict, Verizon’s leadership made a significant miscalculation that compelled its two largest wholesale partners into an alliance with their chief rival. …. The new alliance is engineered to attack the very middle of the market where Verizon is strongest, while also presenting a new challenge to AT&T’s position in the mid-market. Verizon’s attempt to defend its core has inadvertently created a super-competitor, destabilizing the entire business wireless market.
:
The MVNO agreement with its cable partners likely includes a contractual firewall as Comcast has a 20-line cap on any business account. This was a deliberate corporate strategy designed to shield its core SMB customers from wholesale cannibalization by Charter and Comcast. ….

telcodad

A follow-on article:

T-Mobile’s new cable deal: Winners and losers
T-Mobile, Charter and Comcast are the clear winners of a new business-focused MVNO deal. EchoStar loses out and so does Verizon, whose residential MVNO agreement with the cable operators could now be in jeopardy.
By Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading - July 23, 2025
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/t-mobile-s-new-cable-deal-winners-and-losers

…. The agreement will help Charter and Comcast make deeper inroads with mobile among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that have been the domain of Verizon Wireless, and perhaps allow them to step up to even larger business customers that are the strength of AT&T.

Comcast and Charter already have sizable mobile businesses via their original MVNO pact with Verizon. But most of those lines come from residential customers. At the end of Q1 2025, Charter had 10.06 million residential mobile lines against 334,000 for small businesses. Comcast ended the period with 8.14 million total Xfinity Mobile lines, but the company does not break down how many are for business customers.

The Verizon MVNO limits Comcast’s and Charter’s potential to bundle core connectivity services with mobile for the important commercial segment. The T-Mobile deal will help to fix that starting sometime in 2026. The number of business mobile lines Charter and Comcast will be able to sell under the T-Mobile MVNO was not announced. But Entner tells Light Reading he believes they’ll be allowed “to go gangbusters.” …..

Tshirt

telcodad
An even better result would be having both available nation wide as well as direct to phone for locations neither serve well .
at my home 4g is now intermittent and even 5G occasionally only offers emergency service, Both T-mo and AT&T offer strong signals from 2 line of sight (well they would be if the trees weren’t there 🙂 ) towers.
truly agnostic physical plants/coverage should be the ultimate consumer friendly goal

telcodad

T-Mobile has downplayed speculation that the MVNO would serve residential subscribers:

T-Mobile CEO shuts down idea of consumer MVNO deals with Charter, Comcast
T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert downplayed speculation that he’ll chase Charter’s and Comcast’s residential MVNO agreements. But he did say T-Mobile’s new cable deal allows the cable ops to sell up to 1,000 mobile lines to SMBs.
By Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading - July 24, 2025
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/t-mobile-ceo-shuts-down-idea-of-consumer-mvno-deals-with-charter-comcast

On the heels of T-Mobile’s multi-year, business-focused MVNO deal with Charter Communications and Comcast, speculation swirled that T-Mobile might consider gunning for the cable operators’ much larger residential MVNO contracts and snatch them away from Verizon.

Hold that thought.

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert just tossed a big bucket of cold water on the theory.

“People are asking us, well, does this [cable deal] mean you’re stepping into [the consumer cable MVNO] or something like that? No, we’re not interested in that because the dynamics are different in terms of the incrementality in our math,” Sievert said Wednesday on T-Mobile’s Q2 2025 earnings call. …

SpottedCat

hex0101 Also, in some areas, T-Mobile will use DOCSIS Cable Modems running on the Comcast network as a backup circuit for the cell site. Primary circuit would be with a different provider though (and be a fiber circuit).

It’s amazing how hard it is for Comcast to pull fiber those last few hundred feet.

MacLeech

SpottedCat It’s amazing how hard it is for Comcast to pull fiber those last few hundred feet.

It’s all up to what the customer is willing to pay for.