Wi-Fi gives cable MVNO speeds a boost – studyWi-Fi gives cable MVNO speeds a boost – study

Aided by their use of Wi-Fi boost features that support speeds up to 1 Gbit/s on mobile devices, Comcast and Charter have seen wireless download speeds rise by more than 100 Mbit/s in the past two years, according to an Ookla study.

Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor

January 15, 2025

3 Min Read
WiFi abstract art
(Skorzewiak/Alamy Stock Photo)

Comcast and Charter Communications are making waves in wireless by bundling mobile with home broadband, paired with fair pricing, new device trade-in policies, convergence strategies, and the occasional promotion and price adjustment.

Many consumers evidently are drawn to cable's relative no-frills approach to mobile, as Charter added another 545,000 mobile lines in Q3 2024 and Comcast chipped in another 319,000. The operators ended the period with 16.92 million mobile lines: 9.4 million for Charter and 7.52 million for Comcast.

Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile both rely on MVNO pacts with Verizon, but it's becoming increasingly clear that their heavy use of Wi-Fi in the home combined with access to Wi-Fi hotspots in a growing number of areas outside the home is having a positive impact on their speed performance. At least that's what Ookla found in a new study that examined the median download speeds of Speedtest users for mobile customers of Comcast, Charter and MVNO partner Verizon.

Notably, both operators now support a Wi-Fi "boost" feature. Comcast's WiFi Boost bumps Wi-Fi speeds to 1 Gbit/s to customers' mobile devices when connected to their latest and greatest hotspots. Comcast expanded that feature to consumer and business customers last spring, following Charter's introduction of its "Speed Boost" feature in the spring of 2022, which can also reach 1 Gbit/s.  

Beefing up the wireless downstream

The boost features have been fueling wireless speed increases in recent years.

Ookla's study found that Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile customers' download speeds jumped by more than 100 Mbit/s over the past two years in their respective cable footprints.

Broken down by operator, Charter saw its wireless median download speeds more than double – from 84 Mbit/s to 188 Mbit/s, an increase of 104.28 Mbit/s.

Comcast's Xfinity Mobile subs saw download speeds jump more than 2.5 times – from 66.60 Mbit/s to 170.39 Mbit/s when comparing Q4 2023 to Q4 2024.

Ookla_cable_mvno_speed_chart.jpg

Ookla attributed the gains largely to the Wi-Fi boost capabilities. Notably, Comcast got some performance help from its Wi-Fi 6E-capable gateway, Ookla noted. Comcast has also developed a DOCSIS 4.0 gateway equipped with Wi-Fi 7 called the XB10 that will see increased rollouts as the operator expands its D4.0 network upgrades.

"Charter's earlier start in promoting Speed Boost had its Spectrum Mobile users consistently clocking higher overall download speeds in its service area than Comcast did for Xfinity Mobile users in its service area," report author Kerry Baker, who leads Ookla's research and content efforts in North America, explained in the report.

But Baker also observed that Xfinity Mobile's and Spectrum Mobile's speeds started to converge in the second half of 2024 as Comcast played catchup with WiFi Boost.

Verizon's C-band lends a hand

Meanwhile, Ookla found that over the same two-year period Verizon's overall median download speeds increased from 66.81 Mbit/s in Q1 2023 to 97.45 Mbit/s in Q4 2024, an increase of 30.64 Mbit/s. Ookla attributed that rise partly to Verizon's ongoing C-band spectrum buildout, noting that it "floats the boat for Verizon's customers, as well as for Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile customers."

About the Author

Jeff Baumgartner

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Jeff Baumgartner is a Senior Editor for Light Reading and is responsible for the day-to-day news coverage and analysis of the cable and video sectors. Follow him on X and LinkedIn.

Baumgartner also served as Site Editor for Light Reading Cable from 2007-2013. In between his two stints at Light Reading, he led tech coverage for Multichannel News and was a regular contributor to Broadcasting + Cable. Baumgartner was named to the 2018 class of the Cable TV Pioneers.

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