More Americans are taking advantage of opportunities to bundle their home Internet and wireless phone service through a single provider now compared to just a few years ago, according to new consumer research released by Parks Associates on Wednesday.
Around one in five American households subscribed to a home Internet-wireless phone bundle by the end of the second quarter (Q2) of 2024, according to Parks Associates, compared with around one in 10 households that took advantage of the same bundling opportunity during Q2 2017.
Major Internet service providers like Comcast (Xfinity), Charter (Spectrum), Verizon (Fios) and AT&T offer bundles that pair home Internet service with wireless phone. Offerings from Comcast and Charter typically rely on a major wireless carrier like Verizon for their service, with the companies reselling access to 4G LTE and 5G networks while focusing on the build-out of their land-based fiber Internet service.
Bundles have been shown to drive higher customer satisfaction and retention at a time when land-based Internet service providers (ISPs) are competing against emerging fixed wireless products from the three major wireless carriers.
During Q3, Charter reported more than 9.3 million residential and small business mobile customers, earning $803 million in revenue, up 37.6 percent on a year-over basis. Comcast, which offers its Xfinity Mobile service to Xfinity Internet subscribers, attracted 7.52 million wireless customers during the same period.
“This convergence — as well as bundles of home and mobile service — has led to greater customer satisfaction, customer retention, and new business opportunities as customers increasingly expect their home and mobile service from the same company,” Kristen Hanich, the Director of Research at Parks Associates, said on Wednesday.
As Internet-wireless bundles mature, Hanich said companies are looking at other subscription-based offerings to make their services stand out from the competition. Subscription video services are at the top of that list, particularly as small and mid-sized cable operators move away from pay TV service in favor of higher-margin Internet service deployments.
“More broadband providers are forgoing offering their own pay-TV services and instead partnering with [streaming cable-like services] and [subscription video on-demand] providers to offer compelling entertainment services to their subscribers,” Hanich said. “In addition, some ISPs have partnered with brands like Arlo to offer smart security cameras as part of their service bundles. There are a variety of ways to capture new revenue with connectivity as the foundation.”
