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<p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; The cable giant Comcast will start selling cellphone plans called Xfinity Mobile in the coming months, using a network it&#8217;s leasing from Verizon.</p><p>Many subscribers will save money, especially if they don&#8217;t use a lot of data. The catch: Only Comcast internet customers can sign up.</p><p>Comcast, which has nearly 25 million high-speed internet customers, said its wireless service is aimed at holding onto its customers. Comcast&#8217;s key competitors &#8212; AT&amp;T&#8217;s DirecTV and Verizon&#8217;s FiOS &#8212; are part of companies with wireless offerings.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not getting into the mobile business to be the No. 1 carrier,&#8221; said Sam Schwartz, chief business development officer with Comcast Cable. &#8220;It&#8217;s to benefit our existing core business. We&#8217;re not going to make billions of dollars in profit.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Who wins</strong></p><p>The best deals will go to Comcast&#8217;s highest-tier customers, those who already spend roughly $140 a month with Comcast for internet, video and wired phone services. A family of four could get unlimited data for $180 a month combined, the same as Verizon. Many customers won&#8217;t qualify for the special pricing, though; for them, unlimited data for four lines will cost $260.</p><p>Individuals, however, would save on unlimited even without special pricing &#8212; $65 a month for Comcast, compared with $80 for Verizon.</p><p>For customers who don&#8217;t need a lot of cellular data, Comcast charges a flat rate of $12 per gigabyte of data, enough for about an hour of video but plenty for email and chats.</p><p>Comcast is waiving typical &#8220;access fees&#8221; of $20 per line that most carriers charge for enabling voice and text service; the waiver will cover up to five lines. So someone who uses no data would get free wireless service. A couple using four gigabytes a month would pay $48 at Comcast and $90 at Verizon.</p><p>For now, though, Comcast won&#8217;t be rolling wireless charges onto the same bill as broadband, cable and other services.</p><p><strong>Verizon by any other name</strong></p><p>The service Comcast is selling will be essentially the same as a Verizon plan, though Comcast will reduce speeds on unlimited plans after 20 gigabytes. Verizon&#8217;s threshold is higher, at 22 gigabytes, and reduced speeds apply only when there is network congestion.</p><p>Comcast will initially require customers to buy phones through the company. It&#8217;s offering iPhones, Samsung Galaxy phones and one budget model from LG. Customers can pay in full up front or in monthly installments, just as they would through a traditional carrier.</p><p>Comcast&#8217;s pay-per-gigabyte approach is similar to what Google is doing with its wireless service, Google Fi. Customers don&#8217;t need to guess ahead of time how much data they plan to use; both plans charge them only for what they use. With traditional carriers, unused data might get carried over to the following month; even if not, the customer still pays for the unused amount.</p><p>But Google Fi hasn&#8217;t caught on, in part because it works with only a few Google-branded phones and uses networks from T-Mobile, Sprint and U.S. Cellular, which aren&#8217;t as robust as Verizon&#8217;s. Comcast says it can also take advantage of vast array of marketing channels for internet and voice services.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_115926260-e0f6b997be684dc3b0e8b7920dcd55e4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Comcast will start selling cellphone plans called Xfinity Mobile in the coming months, using a network it&#8217;s leasing from Verizon. Many subscribers will save money, especially if they don&#8217;t use a lot of data. The catch: Only Comcast internet customers can sign up. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_115926260-e0f6b997be684dc3b0e8b7920dcd55e4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Comcast will start selling cellphone plans called Xfinity Mobile in the coming months, using a network it&#8217;s leasing from Verizon. Many subscribers will save money, especially if they don&#8217;t use a lot of data. The catch: Only Comcast internet customers can sign up. </caption0><photoCredit0>Matt Rourke | AP Photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Anick Jesdanun</p><p>AP Technology Writer</p></bylineMeta></div>

Cable giant Comcast offers cellular plans on Verizon network