Astound Broadband today became the latest broadband and cable provider to announce a mobile service offering based on a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement. An Astound spokesperson confirmed that the offering will use the T-Mobile network, but declined to provide pricing for the service.
Plans call for making the service available soon to all four million homes in Astound’s service territory, which includes parts of northeastern, midwestern, southwestern and western states, as well as Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
Astound claims to be the nation’s sixth largest cable provider. The company is comprised of what previously were three separate companies – Grande Communications, Wave Broadband and enTouch Systems.
Another key element of the offering is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform from Reach, whose CEO Harjot Saluja was quoted in a press release about Astound Mobile plans.
“By leveraging Reach’s innovative platform, Astound is launching a full-featured mobile service with a back-office portal, a white-labeled end-user experience for Astound customers, and access to a full portfolio of broadband connectivity solutions in addition to mobile,” said Saluja.
The National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC) also offers the Reach platform to its rural video provider members. The CEO of NCTC offered some details about Reach capabilities in an interview with Telecompetitor earlier this year.
The nation’s largest cable companies Comcast and Charter have had considerable success in the mobile market. Those companies also rely on an MVNO agreement to support their offering, although their agreements are with Verizon.
Comcast and Charter also use their own Wi-Fi infrastructure to support the offering, where available with strong enough performance to support mobile service. In addition, the companies have won spectrum of their own and expect to deploy a mobile network using that spectrum in high-traffic areas.
