Comcast partners with Asian carriers, eyes mobile market

Comcast is offering at least two Asian cellular operators access to its Wi-Fi hot spots in the United States, in trial partnerships that illustrate the cable company's ambitions to compete with US wireless carriers.

The deals with Japan's KDDI and Taiwan Mobile allow their subscribers to use Comcast's Wi-Fi hot spots when they travel to the United States, reducing the international roaming charges that they would otherwise have to pay, according to a Comcast spokesman. Comcast has been steadily building out its Wi-Fi network and said that it aims to have 8 million hot spots by the end of the year, covering 19 of the 30 largest US cities. Comcast now has 34,000 Wi-Fi hot spots.