Kinetic teams with AT&T to build discounted home broadband-mobile bundle

Kinetic is adding mobile to the broadband bundle after striking a new deal with AT&T.

The agreement enables Kinetic, the brand for Windstream, to offer a discounted bundle that ties together its own home broadband service with one of AT&T's postpaid mobile service plans. Bundled customers will save $20 per month on their Kinetic home Internet service bill for a period of two years, the companies said.

The new bundle is available to all Kinetic broadband subs across the company's 18-state footprint.

Notably, this new agreement is centered on Kinetic's ability to provide a bundled discount in partnership with AT&T. AT&T confirmed that the partnership with Kinetic is not an MVNO agreement.

Per the fine print, all AT&T postpaid phone plans qualify for the bundle, and all Kinetic Internet plans (25 Mbit/s or faster) qualify for the discounted broadband-mobile bundle. The services will be billed separately – customers will receive one bill from Kinetic for home broadband and a separate bill from AT&T for the mobile service. The bundle discount will appear on the customer's Kinetic bill.

Kinetic customers taking advantage of the bundle can use an existing phone that's compatible with the AT&T wireless network or select a new one that is compatible.

Related:Midco, Ritter mull moves into mobile

Kinetic customers can also trade in an eligible device to get up to $1,000 off a new smartphone with an installment plan, and receive a $200 reward card when they transfer an existing mobile number to the AT&T network. Kinetic broadband customers who are already AT&T mobile customers are in line to get a $100 reward card for each new line they add.

The new bundling deal enters the picture as Kinetic pushes ahead on fiber network upgrades. The company built fiber to 94,000 locations passed during the first half of 2024, ending the period with 453,000 fiber households that were fully owned by Kinetic. Kinetic added 17,000 fiber subs in Q2 2024 and saw consumer broadband average revenues per user (ARPU) hit $89.13, up 2% year-over-year. Kinetic ended Q2 with 215,000 residential broadband subs, including 117,000 on fiber, with about 36% of homes in its footprint having access to 1-Gig speeds.

Broadband ops are mobilizing on mobile

The Kinetic-AT&T agreement fits a broader trend in which cable and other broadband service providers are adding mobile service to the bundle. However, many of the recent examples are based on MVNO pacts rather than bundling agreements.

Among those examples, the National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC), an organization that represents hundreds of Tier 2/3 operators, has an MVNO agreement with AT&T and an MVNE deal with Reach. Several NCTC members, including Breezeline, TDS Telecom, TVS Cable, Allo Communications and Schurz Communications, have signed on. Midco and Ritter Communications are among other co-op members that are vetting the NCTC's mobile agreements as they consider future moves into mobile.

Related:NCTC unveils 'Broadband TV,' aims to accelerate mobile program

Examples of midsized operators that are offering mobile outside the NCTC agreements include WideOpenWest (Reach on the T-Mobile network), Mediacom (Reach on the Verizon network) and Astound Broadband (Reach on the T-Mobile network).

Among Tier 1 cable operators, Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications have MVNO pacts with Verizon, and Altice USA is offering Optimum Mobile via an MVNO deal with T-Mobile.