Cable giant Comcast is offering Asian telcos Taiwan Mobile and KDDI access to its Wi-Fi hot spots in the U.S., with trial partnerships allowing subscribers to use the hotspots when they travel, reducing the international roaming charges they would normally pay.
Although Comcast has not said how much it is charging the cellular operators, the amount is thought to be small because Wi-Fi data charges are usually significantly lower than wireless data fees, according to Reuters. The Taiwan Mobile website says subscribers pay 13 cents per minute to use Comcast Wi-Fi, with that number being reduced to 7 cents a minute until the end of June.
By the end of the year, Comcast hopes to have 8 million hotspots covering 19 of the 30 largest U.S. cities. Its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable would add another 34,000 Wi-Fi hot spots.