Charter Begins Campaign to 'Rip Out Mobile Lines Stuck in Contracts,' Offers Prospective Customers $2,500 to Switch to Spectrum Mobile
Charter Communications' said it will commit as much as $2,500 for customers to move up to five wireless lines from their existing carrier to Spectrum Mobile.
The move comes after Charter CEO Christopher Winfrey said last week that the cable company will continue to eschew aggressive handset subsidies, but rather aggressively capitalize on "our opportunity from a subscriber acquisition standpoint to rip out multiple lines that are stuck in contracts" with large mobile network operators "that have locked up these devices and tied up these consumers."
Spectrum Mobile ended Q1 with 8,252 wireless subscribers, but quarterly net additions have been declining since a peak of 686,000 in the first quarter of 2023. From January - March, the cable wireless reported only 486,000 net additions.
Winfrey said during a conference held last week by equity research firm MoffettNathanson that Charter will continue to refrain from handset promotions. (You can hear a replay of Winfrey's talk here.)
"We've never thought that being in the subsidies business for handsets was really a great business. I still think that's the case," he said.
