Comcast entered the U.S. wireless industry last year with its Xfinity Mobile brand, offering its existing cable customers the option to purchase unlimited services at $45 per month or metered services at $12 per GB. Comcast today counts more than half a million customers on Xfinity Mobile, and next week will likely provide an update to its mobile efforts in conjunction with the release of its second-quarter earnings.
But in advance of that event, the analysts at Wall Street research firm Cowen and Company offered a glimpse into the kinds of customers who are signing up for Comcast’s mobile offering, alongside what they might want from their provider in the future.
Cowen and Company surveys telecom customers every quarter to discern trends in the space, and during its most recent quarterly survey it identified roughly 70 Xfinity Mobile customers. While that’s clearly a fraction of Comcast’s overall Xfinity Mobile customer base, Cowen’s findings nonetheless provide some insight into the kinds of customers who have opted to purchase services from a relatively new name in the U.S. mobile market (though, to be clear, Comcast only sells its mobile services to its existing cable customers).
Perhaps Cowen’s the most interesting finding is that Xfinity Mobile customers are, on average, the oldest in its survey results. The average age of an Xfinity Mobile customer is 49.2 years old, which is older than Verizon’s base (47.7), AT&T’s base (46.6), Sprint’s base (43.5) and T-Mobile’s base (42.9).
Further, Xfinity Mobile customers generally don’t subscribe to many OTT video services, according to Cowen’s survey. The average Xfinity Mobile customer subscribes to just one OTT service, while T-Mobile and Verizon customers subscribe to an average of 1.3 OTT video providers, and AT&T customers subscribe to an average of 1.4. Sprint customers are at the high end of that range, at 1.5.
Those findings are particularly interesting considering, according to the survey, that Xfinity Mobile customers are most likely to consider “cutting the cord.” Fully 10% of Xfinity Mobile customers are thinking about eliminating their traditional pay TV service, while 9% of Verizon customers are considering doing so, 8% of T-Mobile customers are considering that action, and 7% of Sprint customers and just 5% of AT&T customers are thinking about cutting the cord. Those findings may be worrisome for Comcast, which operates a significant video business and has worked diligently to prevent its customers from cutting the cord.
Finally, the Cowen survey found that Xfinity Mobile customers have an average household income of around $72,000. That’s less than the highest (the average Verizon customer has a household income of around $94,000) and more than the lowest (T-Mobile customers have an average household income of around $70,000) in the survey.