Mobile Video High on Comcast's Wi-Fi Agenda

Comcast dropped impressive hints that it plans to leverage its fast-growing Wi-Fi capability and its extensive Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreements to plunge into the increasingly competitive world of mobile video.

Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts stopped short of providing any specific timetable but said, "We're thinking we are very much part of this conversation on a go-forward basis." Roberts acknowledged that Comcast has added about a million public Wi-Fi hotspots around the country in the past few months, an increase of 10 percent over the 10 million hotspots in place at the end of the second quarter in June. He called the established Wi-Fi base "an asset of the company." "We are working on ways to take our Wi-Fi, our 11 million hotspots, our MVNO relationships" into the "competitive space" of mobile video, Roberts said.