Charter follows Comcast to offer Mobile Phone Service

The cable industry’s march into the wireless business is starting to look like a stampede.

A day after Comcast Corp. said it will introduce a Wi-Fi-based phone service by the middle of next year, Charter Communications Inc. said it’s exploring a similar option -- potentially entering a market dominated by Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc.

Charter Chief Executive Officer Tom Rutledge said his company, like Comcast, is exercising an option to resell Verizon’s wireless services. Comcast last year invoked a 2012 agreement with Verizon to market the carrier’s mobile services as its own. Under that accord, a consortium of cable companies led by Comcast sold nationwide spectrum licenses to Verizon for $3.6 billion and secured wireless-resale rights.

Charter, the nation’s second-biggest cable company behind Comcast, wasn’t part of that deal, but inherited the rights after acquiring Time Warner Cable Inc. in May.

Courtesy of BloombergTechnology