US cableco-turned-MVNO Comcast has announced that it will switch on its 3.5GHz 5G network in Philadelphia this month, following successful employee tests of the CBRS spectrum. The announcement coincides with the news that Comcast has agreed to offload its allocation of 600MHz spectrum to T-Mobile US in a deal that could be worth between USD1.2 billion and USD3.3 billion.

Tom Nagel, Comcast’s SVP of Wireless Strategy, commented: ‘Our 5G network field tests with CBRS spectrum have exceeded our expectations and we’ve found the band to be highly efficient and a significant part of a 5G network. This strong CBRS spectrum performance has made us realise that we are unlikely to need the 600MHz spectrum licenses that we currently hold to support our wireless customers. 

As a result, we recently enteredan agreement with T-Mobile in which it will lease and eventually purchase our licences in the 600MHz band.’

As of 30 June 2023 Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile MVNO service accounted for 5.984 million mobile subscriptions. Comcast notes that roughly 90% of its customer data usage is currently carried over Wi-Fi.