The wireless mobile service landscape of United States is undoubtedly a duopoly of Verizon Wireless and AT&T. With more than 150 million subscribers these two companies have been controlling the mobile telephony market of US for decades. The other two service providers, namely T-Mobile and Sprint, are(and will remain) behind by more than 30 million subscribers even after their proposed merger. You may know very well what happens in such situations – the fixture of pricing! Both these companies have been setting the terms for market since a long time.
But now a cable and internet service giant wants to change things. Comcast, county’s largest provider of cable and wireless broadband, launched its Xfinity mobile service last year to shake up the mobile market with innovating pricing mechanism. And it has also been successful to some extent in doing so as it has garnered one million customers in a short span of time. If you want to know more about it and how it can help you save money, here we’re going to discuss that. Let’s get started:
What is Xfinity Mobile and how it works?
Xfinity Mobile is the wireless mobile service of cable and internet giant Comcast. The premise of service is very simple – you need to pay only for the data that you use. Essentially, it’s something not being offered by any major mobile service provider, and it allows people to save money.
The network is actually a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means that it relies on an already established mobile carrier. In case of Xfinity Mobile it’s the network of Verizon. However, it’s not Verizon’s network but Xfinity’s 19 million hotspots around the country that make the network stronger and cheaper to use. You can use the data based on Verizon’s network when at home, and then you can rely on Xfinity’s network of hotspots around the country when you’re out (the switch happens automatically).
Requirements and Restrictions
You must be a subscriber of Comcast in order to use Xfinity Mobile. And you’ll also have to purchase a phone from Comcast – you can’t bring your own unlocked device unless it’s an iPhone (more on this in a few minutes)!
Now let’s talk a bit about the restrictions that come with Xfinity Mobile. You can play videos only up to 480p resolution – No HD and full HD content on your devices, and that is to restrict the unnecessary traffic over the network. This shouldn’t come as too much of a problem though, because even 480p looks super awesome on mobiles. If you’re still interested in watching HD content only, that can be done by requesting an upgrade (for which you’ll be charged an extra fee in near future).
How much Xfinity Mobile costs?
Coming to the cost, Xfinity Mobile is available with two different plans:
- A $45 unlimited plan in which speed is throttled to 1.5 mbps after 20GB of usage
- And a By the Gig plan that costs only $12. It comes with 1GB of data and unlimited calling or texting. After consuming the 1GB data you’re charged $12 per GB.
Also it’s worth noting that Comcast rounds up the data usage. That means 1.1GB or 1.9 GB both will be counted as 2GB, costing $24.
Devices available
The availability of devices is probably the biggest downside of Xfinity mobile. They sell only flagship devices from major manufacturers (i.e. iPhones, Galaxy S and Galaxy Note devices, LG’s V Series and so on. For users who want cheaper devices the options are very limited: $120 Moto E5 Play, $240 LG Stylo 4 and $180 LG K30. Bringing your own unlocked device is not allowed unless it’s an iPhone, as I said above in Requirements and Restrictions section. In fact, even for iPhone users only an unlocked iPhone 5 or later is allowed, and owners need to visit a brick and mortar Xfinity store to take advantage of the BYOD option.
Cancellation policy
You’re allowed to cancel within 30 days of next billing cycle date. If you do, you need to pay only the charges pending for current month on your account and any pending device payments. Within first 30 days you can cancel your contract and return the device for a full refund (after deduction of $35 restocking fee). After 30 days, however, you’ll be liable to pay the usual restocking fee of Xfinity whatever it is for your device plus any other outstanding charges on your device.
Final Thoughts
So that is Xfinity Mobile, the wireless mobile service of Comcast. You should give it a try, and if it can save you money on your monthly mobile bill, it’s certainly the kind of service that you need. There’re people who have reduced their monthly mobile bill to as little as $12 after switching to Xfinity, so there’s nothing wrong in giving it a shot.
