By Shalini Ramachandran And Ryan Knutson 

Comcast Corp.'s most obvious route into the wireless business isn't looking as easy as it once did.

In 2011, the cable giant struck a deal with Verizon Communications Inc. giving it the right to sell wireless service using the carrier's network at set terms and pricing. Now, as Comcast explores a wireless offering, it has a different interpretation of that resale agreement than Verizon, say people familiar with the situation.

One issue: how much flexibility Comcast would have in creating plans and prices for mobile data, a key part of any modern cellphone service.

The contract also didn't specifically contemplate shareable data plans, a common offering from wireless carriers that allow families, for example, to buy 10 gigabytes of data a month and split the capacity among devices, the people said. Verizon didn't even offer such plans when the deal was struck four years ago.

In addition, the agreement's data prices were set before a price war instigated in 2013 by T-Mobile US Inc. and exacerbated by Sprint Corp. That price war has resulted in broadly lower per-gigabyte prices.

Verizon believes Comcast might have a hard time competing under those prices, according to people familiar with Verizon's thinking.

The contact traces to a 2011 transaction when Comcast and other cable companies sold wireless spectrum to Verizon. In addition to $3.6 billion in cash, the cable companies got rights to resell Verizon service. Since then, Wall Street analysts have considered the deal an easy route for Comcast into wireless.

The agreement lays out what Comcast would pay per-minute for cellphone service and which types of voice plans it could offer. But provisions on data service are vague, the people said.

Comcast continues to believe its existing deal is "attractive," said people close to the company. It also believes that under the existing terms it has the flexibility to offer shareable data plans and competitive pricing.

But in an interview last week, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said Comcast may want to renegotiate its deal. "That agreement is old now, it's stale," he said. Mr. Shammo said discussions between Verizon and Comcast over the contract are "ongoing."

"We're confident a mutually beneficial arrangement can be achieved," a Verizon spokesman said.

For Comcast, which walked away from its planned megamerger with Time Warner Cable earlier this year after regulators balked at the deal, a foray into wireless could provide a new growth avenue as its cable TV business stagnates.

The situation is tricky for Verizon. The U.S. wireless industry is already saturated, so enabling a well-heeled giant to compete on its turf would add pressure to an intensifying price war over a finite number of customers. If Comcast were to enter the business, it would be better for Verizon to capture a chunk of that revenue rather than one of its rivals.

Instead of just relying on a cellular network, Comcast hopes to take advantage of its roughly 10 million indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi hot spots. Those could be a pathway to offer a "Wi-Fi-first" service that primarily would use Wi-Fi for consumers' data traffic and jump onto a cellular network where Wi-Fi isn't available.

Comcast has beefed up its Wi-Fi network, using wireless "gateway" boxes in customers' homes that create a public hot spot in addition to the private Wi-Fi signal, so guests who are Comcast customers can access Wi-Fi without having to input a password.

The cable giant also has been increasing its own footprint of outdoor Wi-Fi and has been striking Wi-Fi roaming deals with other operators.

At a May investor conference, Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said "the question is what is the right technology? What is the right product? What's the right timing?" He said Comcast wants to have "a great product whenever we do it," but no offering is imminent.

Other cable companies will have to wrestle with the same issues as Comcast over the old Verizon agreement. Cable operator Charter Communications Inc., which through its pending acquisition of Time Warner Cable would get access to the Verizon resale deal, believes the agreement is more suited for the voice era, said people briefed by the company.

Even if Comcast were to launch a wireless service using Wi-Fi and a reseller agreement like the one it has with Verizon, it would still face hurdles. Most data traffic is carried over Wi-Fi, but those signals don't travel as far as the ones carriers use on cell towers.

In addition, enabling cellphones to make phone calls over Wi-Fi requires additional tinkering on the handset that could make it more difficult for Comcast to offer lots of devices.

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