Leichtman Research Group recently released broadband customer statistics for the end of the second quarter of 2023 for the largest cable and telephone companies. Leichtman compiles most of these numbers from the statistics provided to stockholders other than for Cox and Mediacom, which are estimated, and now reported together. Leichtman says this group of companies represents 96% of all US landline broadband customers.
The first quarter of the year shows a continuation of the trend where all of the growth in broadband is coming from T-Mobile and Verizon FWA fixed cellular wireless. Those two companies added 903,000 customers, while the rest of the ISPs collectively lost over 52,000 customers.
| 2Q 2023 | 1Q 2023 | 1Q Change | % Change | |
| Comcast | 32,305,000 | 32,324,000 | (19,000) | -0.1% |
| Charter | 30,586,000 | 30,509,000 | 77,000 | 0.3% |
| AT&T | 15,304,000 | 15,345,000 | (41,000) | -0.3% |
| Verizon | 7,562,000 | 7,528,000 | 34,000 | 0.5% |
| Cox & Mediacom | 7,035,000 | 7,035,000 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Altice | 4,576,100 | 4,612,700 | (36,600) | -0.8% |
| T-Mobile FWA | 3,678,000 | 3,169,000 | 509,000 | 16.1% |
| Lumen | 2,909,000 | 2,981,000 | (72,000) | -2.4% |
| Frontier | 2,865,000 | 2,863,000 | 2,000 | 0.1% |
| Verizon FWA | 2,260,000 | 1,866,000 | 394,000 | 21.1% |
| Windstream | 1,175,000 | 1,175,000 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Cable ONE | 1,057,900 | 1,063,000 | (5,100) | -0.5% |
| Breezeline | 680,785 | 687,519 | (6,734) | -1.0% |
| TDS | 523,600 | 515,400 | 8,200 | 1.6% |
| Consolidated | 376,829 | 369,862 | 6,967 | 1.9% |
| Total | 112,894,214 | 112,043,481 | 850,733 | 0.8% |
| Cable | 76,240,785 | 76,231,219 | 9,566 | 0.0% |
| Telco | 30,715,429 | 30,777,262 | (61,833) | -0.2% |
| FWA | 5,938,000 | 5,035,000 | 903,000 | 17.9% |
The telcos collectively lost almost 62,000 customers in the quarter despite gains from Verizon FiOS, TDS, and Consolidated of 49,000 customers for the quarter. The biggest loser was Lumen, losing 72,000 broadband customers.
The only cable company with positive growth was Charter – its strategy of expanding its footprint into rural areas is clearly paying off.
It’s hard to see from these numbers where the huge growth of FWA wireless broadband is coming from. Much of the FWA growth is coming in rural markets where the competition is fixed wireless and satellite service. But FWA pricing seems to be aimed squarely at competing with DSL and probably counts for the overall losses for AT&T and Lumen. Both companies are adding fiber customers and are losing DSL customers more quickly than indicated by the overall numbers. I’m sure AT&T hates the loss of DSL revenue, but competition from FWA makes it that much easier for the company to eventually walk away from rural copper.
One reply on “Broadband Customers 2Q 2023”
It’s a saturated market. The majors will become increasingly desperate for profit growth but, I assume, will continue to avoid price competition like the plague. Everyone should prepare to pay more for the same.