I’ve been using Xfinity Mobile on my two lines since May 2018. What I’ve experienced in these few months of use are the strengths and weaknesses of this new player in the game of wireless superiority. I’d used AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint in different times in the past, and the comparisons with Xfinity Mobile made it clear whether Xfinity Mobile is worthy of my money. Read on.
Domestic Use
My experience using Xfinity Mobile here in the US has been excellent. Since May, I haven’t had call drops or bad coverage where I couldn’t make a call or brows internet because of bad coverage. This’s been in the greater Harrisburg areas in Pennsylvania. I also traveled to Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia including many rural areas and my experience hasn’t changed with Xfinity Mobile.
One of the impressive things I noticed is that sometimes when I’m stopped at a traffic light or just walk on the sidewalk I see I’m connected to XFINITY wifi automatically. Same thing when I’m in a mall or in a restaurant, I get connected to XFINITY wifi network. Comcast has millions of these wifi hotspots around the country and they’re free to Xfinity customers.
Cellular data speed has been great except times when I get dropped to 2G or 3G and this happens very rarely. Call quality has been great as well. Wifi calling and calling while browsing on LTE are also available. I experienced nothing so far that makes me think that Xfinity isn’t as good as Verizon or others in the field.
International Use
I’ve traveled to Dubai and Bangladesh recently and used Xfinity in both locations. As soon as I landed, I was greeted by Xfinity with a text welcoming me to the country. The text included rates information for call, text and data along with a phone number to call for assistance for issues with the service.
I was connected to du network in Dubai and grameenphone in Bangladesh. In both countries, I was able to tap into the strongest available network. Xfinity provided me with flawless connections and seamless use of my device. No issues with phone calls, text or data consumption.
The only flip side I can tell you is that the cost which I’ll get to next. I’d also taken Google’s Project Fi to the same locations a few years back and experienced services with the same quality with less cost. So Xfinity isn’t going to win this game unless they change their strategy.
Cost
Xfinity Mobile is the winner here. You only pay for the data you use at $12/GB rate. There’s no other cost to use this mobile service from Philadelphia based Comcast. No line access fees, nothing for unlimited calls and texts. I used to pay at least $90 for my two lines. Since May this year, on average, I paid $53 each month, a monthly saving of more than $35. The quality of service you get with just $12 per GB data used with unlimited calls and text (text to foreign country is also included) is unparalleled.
While Xfinity Mobile excels at providing high quality service with cost cheaper than the competition at home, the tech giant is wounded in the battle of affordability when it comes to international roaming. Unlike domestic use, international roaming with Xfinity is not cheap. Although price varies based on the destination, but it’s not as affordable as Project Fi which charges the same rates as home for data and text no matter where you go on the globe. Sprint also has cheaper option for international roaming.
Choice of Phones
The choice is limited on phones. Either you buy a smartphone from them or bring an eligible smartphone. Not all phones are eligible though. The phones that are sold by Xfinity are mostly high end flagship phones from major brands like Apple, Samsung and LG. I wish they had more options on the phones.
Feature phones aren’t sold by Xfinity and you can’t bring your own either. Xfinity really should open up more choices on phones especially sell those feature phones for folks not wanting to purchase an expensive smartphone or incapable of operating one. One reason I can think of for not selling feature phones is that Xfinity only makes money from you when you use data and feature phones aren’t data friendly. Any phone, smartphone for sure, that are compatible with Verizon should work just fine on Xfinity.
While you can save money and reap other benefits from Comcast by joining Xfinity Mobile, you can only do so as long as you have Xfinity internet at home because, and here is the cold truth, Xfinity Mobile is only available to the existing Xfinity broadband internet subscribers.
Xfinity Mobile is a subsidiary of Comcast.
SHAHED I. NOYON 
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