Xfinity mobile - what's the catch?

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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So I got this notice from Xfinity that I can have up to five mobile voice lines with national calling and unlimited texting, and it's included as a part of my Internet service. Does this mean I can cancel my (and a couple other) cell phone service plans and use Xfinity's?

It sounds too good to be true. There must be a catch somewhere. Anybody up on this?
 
Sac Arrow said:
So I got this notice from Xfinity that I can have up to five mobile voice lines with national calling and unlimited texting, and it's included as a part of my Internet service. Does this mean I can cancel my (and a couple other) cell phone service plans and use Xfinity's?

It sounds too good to be true. There must be a catch somewhere. Anybody up on this?
Click to expand...
The catch I see is that the want to gouge on data. The gig price is rather high IMNSHO.
 
Another catch: At this time a new device must be purchased with each new line
 
Okay that is what confused me. Calling and texting is included, but mobile data has to be paid for separately. In the circular file it goes.
 
$12/GB. No thanks.

Not that they could have prices much better than that when they’re reselling Verizon as an MVNO.

Verizon ain’t gonna lose money on that deal.
 
Sac Arrow said:
It sounds too good to be true. There must be a catch somewhere.
Click to expand...

The stellar customer service? :rofl:

If you know you use little data, paying per gig might not be terrible. There's also a $45/mo unlimited option. Most plans you pay for the data you want, but xfinity doesn't have the per-line access charge most have (I.e. Verizon is $20/mo smartphone line access).

They were offering some excellent phone deals about a month ago. I thought of signing up for a minimal plan to try it out and score a new phone, but they didn't seem to have their stuff together according to the internetz.
 
rpadula said:
If you know you use little data, paying per gig might not be terrible. There's also a $45/mo unlimited option. Most plans you pay for the data you want, but xfinity doesn't have the per-line access charge most have (I.e. Verizon is $20/mo smartphone line access).
Click to expand...

That’s why they require you to have internet service from them. They’re banking on the fact that most people go from home to work 80% of the time. So they can pay Verizon less than Verizon needs to provide literally the same Verizon Service when out and about.

Of course if you’re on a smart phone with Wifi calling, Verizon is doing the same thing but pocketing it and they don’t have to pay to operate an ISP, but they also can’t charge you another $100 for home internet service either. Ha.

It’s a wash. There’s pretty solid rumors that Xfinity will allow users to sign up who don’t have home internet from them eventually, but it’ll have a higher monthly. Probably: $20 per device. :)

They’re just a Verizon MVNO at high prices right now really. There’s way better Verizon MVNOs for someone who doesn’t use much data.

Maybe Ergen at Dish will sell Comcast all that RF spectrum he’s squatting on and Comcast will get into the cell site management biz? LOL. Not likely. Ergen is squatting on that spectrum to keep the cell providers from being your streaming TV provider. Ten plus years after the auction and he’s more than happy to pay the fines.
 
denverpilot said:
That’s why they require you to have internet service from them. They’re banking on the fact that most people go from home to work 80% of the time. So they can pay Verizon less than Verizon needs to provide literally the same Verizon Service when out and about.

Of course if you’re on a smart phone with Wifi calling, Verizon is doing the same thing but pocketing it and they don’t have to pay to operate an ISP, but they also can’t charge you another $100 for home internet service either. Ha.

It’s a wash. There’s pretty solid rumors that Xfinity will allow users to sign up who don’t have home internet from them eventually, but it’ll have a higher monthly. Probably: $20 per device. :)

They’re just a Verizon MVNO at high prices right now really. There’s way better Verizon MVNOs for someone who doesn’t use much data.

Maybe Ergen at Dish will sell Comcast all that RF spectrum he’s squatting on and Comcast will get into the cell site management biz? LOL. Not likely. Ergen is squatting on that spectrum to keep the cell providers from being your streaming TV provider. Ten plus years after the auction and he’s more than happy to pay the fines.
Click to expand...
Current disclosures have the cost at $10/line for non-subscribers. The $20/line figure may come in to play once they actually start offering service to non-subscribers. Sorta like the zero cost lines once they offer BYOD....everything will go up.
 
I haven't found a better deal that AT&T Prepaid. I pay $40.00 / month (with auto-pay) for unlimited talk and text plus 6GB data with a month rollover. Because I almost always use less than 1 GB / month, I start every month with > 11 GB. Plus AmEx rebates me 5 percent for putting the bill on my business card, so in the end I'm paying $38.00 plus tax.

Also, because it's not an unlimited plan, I get full speed and the hotspot is enabled. The unlimited plans throttle the data and disable the hotspot. I almost never need the hotspot, but when I do, it's very handy to have.

The only down side is that prepaid doesn't include certain services like WiFi calling, which is kind of bizarre considering that it's all profit for the carrier. But I don't use those services anyway, so for me it works out fine. There's also no roaming, which might be a problem for some, but hasn't been for me. It's pretty rare that I can't grab an AT&T tower even out here in the boonies.

Rich
 
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