Charter CEO Chris Winfrey says his industry needs to do more to tell consumers that cable delivers better performance and reliability than fixed wireless access and that cable provides a better broadband/mobile bundle.
Charter Communications is "not standing still" as it explores new ways to compete with fixed wireless access (FWA), says CEO Chris Winfrey. But Charter's top exec also stressed that the cable industry still needs to do more to demonstrate how it matches up on price, reliability and performance.
He said the relatively low price of FWA services is often combined with a bundle that includes a high-priced mobile service. Charter, he argued, can offer a better price with its home broadband/mobile bundle and deliver a faster and more reliable broadband service.
"We need to break through" against FWA, Winfrey said Tuesday at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference. "I think the big surprise is that customers haven't yet realized that it [FWA] actually costs them more money. We, as an industry, haven't done a really good job at telling customers that it's actually costing them more."
But he also stressed that Charter is "not standing still," referencing the operator's multi-phased cable network plan focused on delivering symmetrical gigabit speeds, new pricing and packaging and a renewed focus on bundles and plans that pair home broadband with mobile and/or video.
Winfrey has taken jabs at FWA before, often referring to it as "cellphone Internet." Charter has also mocked the performance and reliability of T-Mobile's FWA service in ads that have grabbed the attention of advertising industry watchdogs.
"As it relates to cellphone Internet, in particular, it turns out there is a niche market for lower-quality, lower-speed and lower-reliability service," Winfrey said.
T-Mobile isn't standing still either with the recent launch of a set of new FWA service tiers, starting at $35 per month when customers bundle in mobile phone service, to help the company better segment the broadband market.
Like its cable peers, Charter has struggled to return to broadband subscriber growth. But the trends have been improving. In Q3, Charter lost 110,000 residential broadband subs, but it would've gained customers if not for losses tied to the demise of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).
Winfrey declined to provide specific broadband subscriber guidance for the fourth quarter, but he noted the results are better than what Charter saw at this time last year. Comcast expects to lose about 100,000 broadband subs in Q4, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said yesterday at the same conference.
Focus on new form of video bundles
Switching to video, Charter is pushing ahead with a plan to bundle in several streaming apps/services with its baseline pay-TV packages, including the ad-supported tiers of Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, Max, AMC+, BET+, ViX and Discovery+. Winfrey estimates the apps that are being bundled represent a retail value of nearly $80.
Charter is in the process of getting those apps integrated and expects to lean into that strategy sometime in the first half of 2025.
He said it's also critical to ensure that customers can upgrade to the ad-free versions of those apps and that Charter likewise has the ability to market and sell those apps to its broadband-only customers.
Winfrey said it's a "complicated process." Charter, he added "want[s] to be careful not to over-market something before we've made it simple and easy for the customer to get in and make adjustments."
Charter is also building a "video store" where customers can manage their apps and make adjustments based on what services and packages they take from the operator.
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