Comcast's Weapon to Take on Wireless Giants: Wi-Fi Hotspots
- Cable company seen reselling Verizon service, tapping Wi-Fi
- Technology advances mean Wi-Fi can rival cellular now
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After a history of missteps and failures, Comcast Corp. once again wants to enter the wireless business. This time, the largest U.S. cable company has a better chance to succeed because of a powerful weapon: Wi-Fi.
Over the past several years, Comcast has been replacing its cable customers’ routers with new ones doubling as public Wi-Fi hotspots. To date, the company has installed more than 10 million of those so-called dual-mode routers across the country. It’s essentially turning households into a kind of cell site for a potential game-changing wireless service combining Wi-Fi and cellular technology to challenge the dominance of Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc.