Comcast Business sees opportunities to scale multi-site business customer base, wireless services

Comcast Business is setting its sites on how it can make its network services available to its customers regardless of location by working with partners and leveraging new cloud service assets.

A key element to meet Comcast Business’ goal is its 2021 acquisition of Masergy Communications.

Upon completing the Masergy acquisition, Comcast Business found a way to accelerate its growth, serving large and mid-size companies, particularly U.S.-based organizations with multi-site global operations, while bolstering its overall channel distribution strategy. Masergy came to Comcast Business with over 1,400 customers in nearly 100 countries worldwide.

“We have been, for some time, working with partners and most certainly, with the acquisition of Masergy,” said David Watson, president and CEO of Comcast Cable, during the third quarter earnings call. “We've been expanding our capability to go into other areas and have a global opportunity to handle customers.”  

Watson emphasized the “key here is to be able to take care of customers' needs wherever they are.”

To make this happen, Comcast Business plans to ramp up its sales force and work with its roster of network partners.

“We will leverage the partnerships that we have, but certainly, we'll deliver products that meet the customers' needs out, but it's sales force and adding some people that can drive mid-market and enterprise where the customers' locations are,” Watson said. “We’ll continue to partner. We've got great partnerships with Charter, Cox, and many others, and we'll continue to do that. It's not an infrastructure moment.

Mid-market growth ramps

Comcast Business continues to find relevance in the small and mid-market business segment, one that it has been able to take market share from larger telcos that have traditionally focused on larger customers.

Revenue for business services connectivity rose 5% to $2.3 billion due to what Comcast said was an increase in revenue from small business customers, driven by higher average rates, and an increase in revenue from medium-sized and enterprise customers.

“The overall business services had an excellent quarter,” Watson said. “Revenue accelerated a little, reflecting more robust growth in enterprise and mid-market. So, we've been very focused on growing all categories.”

The unit is also going through a leadership transition. Long-time Comcast Business I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Bill Stemper as he transitions to Chairman Emeritus. Bill has been a spectacular teammate and driver of this business over a long stretch, really -- and one of the great things that Bill did is build a world-class team. I think they've set the bar in terms of performance. We continue to do that. And part of that team is an outstanding executive, Ed Zimmerman, who has now taken over -- running business services for us.

Eying wireless opportunities

While it's clear that cable operators have found their footing in the consumer wireless market through their bundling and lower-priced options, Comcast Business cites wireless as a new frontier for its customers.

Watson said that the small to medium business segment is a growth target for wireless. This comes at a time when large telcos such as AT&T and Verizon continue to emphasize wireless solutions for their business customer base.

“In terms of wireless, it's an essential part of business services,” he said. “This phase is centered on SMB, and we're getting that going.”

He added that “it’s not a major driver yet in overall mobile activity at this point, but we expect that pace to pick up.” 

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