Posts by Doug Williams from April 23, 2008

Doug Williams | April 23, 2008, 04:16 PM
Comcast Dumping Pivot?

Omniscient Karl over at DSLReports.com has obtained information from sources at Comcast that the company will cease offering its Pivot/Sprint wireless service to both new and existing customers beginning next week.

Lots of finger-pointing took place back in November between Sprint and the cable operators involved in the joint venture about why things weren’t working out so well. Sprint felt the operators didn’t do enough to promote the service, and decided to cease selling the Pivot offer inside Sprint’s retail stores. The operators claimed everything was rosy, but they failed to price the service at anything resembling a discount. Further, the goal of offering integrated features with other bundled services was apparently not compelling to consumers, particularly at Comcast's price points. That outcome fits pretty well with our survey data, which showed relatively limited interest in integrated media features involving a wireless phone – precisely the type of features that a cable operator like Comcast should have been able to deliver. (See this report for in-depth discussion and data on service integration.)

If Comcast really is dumping Pivot, it’ll be interesting to see how (whether?) they decide to proceed with a wireless play. It is hard to envision a wholesale agreement with AT&T Mobility or Verizon Wireless given the weak negotiating position Comcast would hold. Could it be time for a big facilities-based fixed services player to get behind T-Mobile or Alltel and take one of those providers to the next level?

UPDATE: No big surprise here, but it's not just Comcast. Time Warner and Cox have also confirmed that they too are pulling the Pivot plug. No word yet from Advance/Newhouse.