NCTA has a new impact campaign out to let people, pundits and politicians know that the cable industry is impactful. I never thought the cableco’s would be talking about how they save a consumer money! The new campaign says cableco’s save consumers up to $1000 per year in cellular bills. Cellular and TV they buy wholesale and bundle. Granted, Large Cable is building out 5G, CBRS and wi-fi offload to reduce the wholesale costs of mobility, but how long can they maintain the low price lead?
Consumers do not get device discounts from cable – and that seems to be the differentiator for the MNO’s: free phones. Of course, when Apple or Samsung require a billion dollar commitment, not many MVNOs can sign that deal. Only the top 3 or 4 MNOs can do that. USCellular and C Spire couldn’t swing that. The cablecos don’t do phone giveaways. They probably use a third party supplier that also configures the device for their network.