LDN - Business

Comcast to launch new platform in push for business customers

[September 13, 2017] By Anjali Athavaley

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable provider, on Wednesday launched a new business application and platform with faster connections in its push to boost sales to commercial customers as more consumers drop traditional cable services. Comcast, like other pay-TV providers, is under pressure as viewing habits change and wants to leverage its infrastructure to grow in other ways.

Comcast sees $40 billion to $50 billion in potential revenue from selling services like voice, video and networking technologies to business customers, a market segment traditionally dominated by telecom companies like AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, said Bill Stemper, president of Comcast Business, in an interview.

He said the application, which runs on a software-based platform called ActiveCore, provides a faster, cheaper way to connect branch offices to a data center or business headquarters.

Business services was the fastest growing segment in Comcast's cable business last year, with revenue up 16.1 percent to $5.51 billion.

"We're constantly regarded as really the growth side of the business internally," Stemper said. "Therefore, investments are in line with driving that type of growth." The company has invested $6.2 billion in business services since 2010.

Comcast's customers have been mostly small and mid-size business, but the company wants to expand to larger enterprises, Stemper said.

Comcast has also been expanding its home security business and is turning to home automation.

While its video subscriber numbers have fared better than other pay-TV companies, Comcast last week estimated losing 100,000 to 150,000 subscribers in the third quarter in part due to heightened competition.

(Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Richard Chang)


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