(Image courtesy: FCC.com)

Comcast is getting into the wireless mobile business.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts made the surprise announcement at this morning’s Goldman Sachs Communacopia investor conference, telling attendees Comcast will offer service beginning in mid-2017.

Roberts added the service will depend heavily on Comcast’s installed base of 15 million Wi-Fi hotspots, mostly from cable modem/gateways already installed in customer homes. When away from a hotspot, Comcast’s cellular service will depend on Verizon Wireless.

The deal with Verizon Wireless was expected, because Comcast has maintained an agreement with Verizon since 2011 that allows both companies to sell each other’s services to consumers. The agreement allows Comcast to obtain service from Verizon Wireless at fixed wholesale prices.

That means Comcast can introduce its wireless service without having to build wireless infrastructure like cell towers.

“We believe there will be a big payback with reduced churn, more [customer] stickiness and better satisfaction,” Roberts said.

Comcast will continue the cable industry’s tradition of not directly competing with other cable operators and will not accept customers outside of an existing Comcast service area. Comcast will likely offer the service in a bundle with other services. This will result in a quad-play package for Comcast, bundling cable TV, internet, phone, and cellular service.

Roberts did not talk about pricing.

The cable industry prepares for war over a watered-down set-top box reform proposal many companies initially supported.

You can’t please cable companies any of the time.

After months of an intense lobbying effort to kill Federal Communications Commission Chairman Thomas Wheeler’s set-top box reform proposal that would have created an open standard allowing manufacturers to compete for your box needs, the cable industry has declared war on the watered-down compromise released last week that many cable operators lobbied for as a suitable alternative.

“While we appreciate that Chairman Wheeler has abandoned his discredited proposal to break apart cable and satellite services, his latest tortured approach is equally flawed,” said Comcast’s vice president of government communications Sena Fitzmaurice in a statement. “He claims that his new proposal builds on the marketplace success of apps, but in reality, it would stop the apps revolution dead in its tracks by imposing an overly complicated government licensing regime and heavy-handed regulation in a fast-moving technological space. The Chairman’s new proposal also violates the Communications Act and exceeds the FCC’s authority.”

That’s a veiled threat Comcast may take the FCC to court if they proceed with the watered down reform policy now advocated by Chairman Wheeler.

Charter Communications, newly enlarged with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in its family, also issued a statement claiming the FCC will ruin everything:

“Enabling consumers to use apps instead of set-top boxes may be a valid goal, but the marketplace is already delivering on the goal without overreaching government intervention. The FCC’s mandate threatens to bog down with regulations and bureaucracy the entire TV app market that consumers are increasingly looking to for innovation, choice and competition.”

Sensing blood in the regulatory waters, the pile on from Congress and programmers that depend on their relationships with large cable operators was inevitable and quick:

The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Monday that he is doubtful.

Pallone

“While I commend Chairman Wheeler for working to solve this difficult issue, I’m concerned that this latest proposal will not work, particularly when it comes to licensing,” Rep. Frank Pallone (N.J.) said in a statement. “Ultimately, I’m skeptical that the revised plan will benefit consumers.”

Indiana residents are fuming at Comcast for cutting off vital local weather information as tornado warnings were issued, replacing live forecasters with a static blue screen.

Comcast viewers were forced off local TV stations and locked out of their cable boxes, according to an investigation by WRTV in Indianapolis. Instead of getting live reports including storm tracks, Comcast viewers found a blue screen with a basic tornado warning scrolling across it. The message stayed on screen between 90 seconds to more than three minutes, and on one day alone Comcast locked viewers out of local storm reports 24 times during the tornado outbreak.

Comcast blamed the interruptions on its outdated infrastructure in the Indianapolis area.

The company said it is required to deliver the emergency alert messages, but critics complain Comcast can manage this without cutting off local stations’ live reporting.

“In many markets we have the technology in place to not override a particular broadcaster with a priority EAS alert,” a Comcast spokesperson told WRTV. “We are currently working on getting this capability on all platforms in every market.”

WRTV confirmed Indianapolis isn’t one of those markets and Comcast wasn’t talking when asked when the EAS improvements would reach Indianapolis.

Other providers didn’t experience any problems. Bright House delivers warnings without interrupting the picture on the underlying channel. AT&T said the same was true with U-verse.

Comcast has expanded its online video service Xfinity on Campus to 36 new schools, allowing college students who live on campus to watch live and on-demand TV at no cost.

The cable operator pitches the service to universities that are trying to move away from traditional coaxial cable networks and get cable TV wiring out of the dorms. Comcast’s program is essentially an investment for the future. Students exposed to Comcast’s cable TV service might become accustomed to having it, increasing the possibility they will stay with Comcast after they graduate.

Participating colleges set up a Metro Ethernet connection to the Comcast network and agree to support both an on-campus network that can support IPTV and a joint authentication solution that allows students access to the service by logging into their university accounts. The service is only available over the college’s campus network.

Comcast claims the service requires little or no equipment and students use their own devices — IPTV-ready televisions, as well as PC’s, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones to access the content.

New this year is free cloud DVR service, letting each student record up to 20 shows to view later. Comcast has also consolidated the on-campus service with traditional on-demand viewing available to all Comcast customers through the Xfinity TV app.

Comcast has confirmed new Altice USA and Charter Communications customers that used to subscribe to Cablevision, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks will be able to continue accessing the free nationwide Cable WiFi roaming service, even though Altice and Charter are not members of the consortium that runs it.

“The Cable WiFi consortium remains in place following the recent merger and acquisitions activity,” a Comcast spokesperson told FierceCable. “Subscribers of each [company] that were previously entitled to use the CableWiFi hotspots continue to enjoy access. Access points that were made available by each [affected cable operator] continue to provide CableWiFi service.”

The network allows any Comcast, Cablevision/Altice USA, Charter/Time Warner Cable, Charter/Bright House Networks, and Cox Communications broadband customer to access a network of 500,000 nationwide Wi-Fi hotspots run by the five cable operators. Customers will know if they are in range of a hotspot by finding CableWiFi as an available connection. Broadband subscribers can log in using the same credentials they use when logging into their cable operator’s website.

It is unknown if Charter Communications or Altice USA will join the consortium directly, which would expand the network to cover legacy Charter customers and those signed up with Suddenlink, another Altice-owned operator.