Comcast launches NOW brand for low-cost Internet, mobile, TV

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is concentrating its low-cost options for Internet, mobile service and TV under a new brand focused on month-to-month communications services.

Comcast’s NOW will bring in new prepaid Internet and mobile service products to complement the company’s longtime low-income broadband options, branded as Internet Essentials.

The introduction of NOW Internet brings a prepaid offering that presents another competitive front to the fixed wireless Internet offerings like those from T-Mobile (TMUS) and Verizon (VZ). Comcast’s new NOW prepaid plans will allow customers to choose between 100-Mbps download speeds for $30/month or 200 Mbps for $45/month, both with unlimited data.

Meanwhile, NOW Mobile will offer customers $25 per line prepaid, featuring unlimited 5G data, talk and text, along with access to Comcast’s 23M-plus Xfinity Wi-Fi hotspots. NOW Internet and NOW Mobile are in initial trials in three cities, with a nationwide launch coming within weeks.

With the full NOW branding, the portfolio also includes NOW TV (a prepaid streaming television offering for $20/month, featuring live and on-demand programs from more than 40 networks along with FAST channels and Peacock Premium) and NOW WiFi Pass (giving customers 30 days of access to the company’s 23M-plus Wi-Fi hotspots for $20).

April will mark the last month of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program if new funding isn’t arranged, Comcast noted, and the NOW products will offer its ACP customers more low-cost options.

“Consumers have told us they want low-cost, easy-to-use connectivity and entertainment options that deliver the same reliability and consistency of our leading Xfinity services,” Comcast’s (CMCSA) Dave Watson said.

The NOW brand “rounds out our product offering to provide something for every consumer segment of the market and plays to our strengths in superior network capabilities, Wi-Fi and streaming,” he said.

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