Cable Holds Competitive Advantage in Wireless, Moffett Says

particularly big advantage in wireless due to its wired infrastructure, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett emailed investors Wednesday: "Cable wins in wireless just as it has won in wired broadband." Cable networks already are in essence wired backhaul layers "with a wireless short-hop access layer," Moffett said, pointing to consumer use of wireless tech. "He who has the best wired network (i.e. the cable operators) will ultimately win in wireless," since it will be cheaper for cable operators to add a wireless access layer atop their existing wireline infrastructure than for wireless operators to do the reverse, Moffett said. Pointing to Comcast's plans for a wireless service rollout next year (see 1609200042), Moffett said the operator exercising its Verizon mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement will likely be "just the first piece of Comcast's entry into the wireless business." The cable company will put as much traffic as it can over its own W-Fi network and likely buy spectrum in the current broadcast incentive auction and ultimate have a hybrid network that uses Verizon as fill-in, he said, saying Comcast likely will try to buy a national 20 MHz-wide block for as much as $9 billion. The company also likely will sell some spectrum in Telemundo/NBC duopoly markets, he said. Charter Communications -- which also has activated its Verizon MVNO -- might also enter a joint venture with Comcast to jointly build out the 600 MHz spectrum layer, with each adding its wire networks to provide the capacity layer in-region, Moffett said.