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According to Bloomburg, Comcast is rumored to be planning on offering a wireless telephony service, in partnership with Verizon Wireless.
I expect that the wifi calling features will heavily lean on their rollout of Wifi APs installed in customer homes, and when there is a lack of coverage, the Verizon Wireless services will pick up the slack.
Would anyone opt to use this service, knowing that in their home and neighborhoods, they are likely to get a "strong signal" if the data signal for wifi is already strong due to a previous Xfinity rollout? It could be there are areas of poor coverage due to a lack of Xfinity wifi, but overall, if seems that they have a strong placement in the communities they serve.
As a user of voip, and voip over wifi, the complications inherent in providing a consistent audio experience can be a difficult problem to solve, and it often deals with numerous differing devices that may not provide the same level of performance due to hardware or software, let alone network conditions. BYOD can be challenging due to the costs of providing a consistent service for inconsistent hardware.
Comcast has a lot of that problem solved, though, as they control the network and most of the APs. It isn't suggested anywhere, but I would guess that the performance for calls would hinge on the availability of their Xfinity access points, managed by them, and not by people like me with APs in my home providing coverage that their Xfinity device does not. They would need to offer a phone that uses Verizon, so we know that the client hardware will also be well controlled and not subject to differences between vendors.
If the costs are competitive, would you use this service? Does anyone have problems with Verizon Wireless as the backfill for when the wifi capabilities are unavailable?
And lastly, is this of value to any if they provided an application to let you make calls on your tablet/phone/computer, all originating and receiving calls to the same number that is portable and can ring across all of your devices?
All in all, even if video calls are not discussed as part of the offering, this could be an excellent alternative to Skype and similar services. It isn't free, but it will promise a more consistent experience guarantee due to their ability to control qos/data marking of the the end-to-end connectivity on their network.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @06:36AM
We ended up with a Comcast business account at my office due to a lack of competition in the area. At install, I insisted that both wifi networks be disabled and when the tech left they were disabled and there was no xfinity hotspot. A few weeks later, I noticed the wifi lights blinking and discovered they had remotely enabled the xfinity hotspot. Called tech support to complain and get it fixed. They turned it off and said it was due to a firmware update. Then a month later, same thing! Lights active, xfinity present... This repeated a couple of times until I felt I just couldn't trust them. I tried placing the modem in a box covered with tinfoil but the signal went right through it. I ended up getting the special screwdriver that opens the modem and disconnected the two antenna boards. Seriously... FUCK YOU, COMCAST...
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday October 26 2015, @01:20PM
This is something I have been having a problem with as well. From what I have been reading when you have your router put in bridge mode it's only temporary. You have to request "true bridge" or some shit. Have not confirmed this personally yet.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2015, @12:08AM
Original AC responding... Ours has been bridged for about a year without any issue. Behind the modem I have two networks, each with a dedicated firewall (FreeBSD), and two access points (running TomatoUSB). There have been a few outages but the modem holds its' config. The problem is that Comcast remotely enables the modem's wifi so they can provide the xfinity hotspot. Each time they claim it was an innocent mistake caused by a firmware update but the pattern suggests otherwise. I complain, they turn it off, then they turn it on again a few weeks later; probably hoping that I will be too distracted to notice. I'm sure it's intentional...
Comcast is fleecing their customers. They over charge you for the service then they use your equipment and power to provide service to strangers within range. To use a bad car analogy, it's like buying a new car and then having the manufacturer allow their other customers to use your car when you're not. I know that's not exactly the same but you get the idea.
That said, we have a 'business' account, not residential. As such, we pay ~$270 per month for service. It's absolutely UNACCEPTABLE for Comcast to pull this kind of shit with us. It's just one more attack vector to worry about, and unlike most businesses, I actually care about our customer data and I work hard to protect it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @08:29PM
Why are you giving control of your internal Business network to a company like that? Use your own hardware!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @11:36PM
Hey there, original AC responding... Your question incorrectly assumes that we had a choice. There weren't many retail spaces available in our budget and eliminating one based on ISP availability was not an option. We knew Comcast was a shitty company but it was either use them or shut down the business. Personally, I'm glad that we decided to not put a few dozen families out of work...