Leichtman Research Group recently released broadband customer statistics for the end of the third 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 941,000 customers, while the rest of the ISPs collectively added only 8,000 customers.
|
3Q 2023 |
2Q 2023 |
Change |
Change |
|
| Comcast |
32,287,000 |
32,305,000 |
-18,000 |
-0.10% |
| Charter |
30,649,000 |
30,586,000 |
63,000 |
0.20% |
| AT&T |
15,296,000 |
15,304,000 |
-8,000 |
-0.10% |
| Verizon |
7,612,000 |
7,562,000 |
50,000 |
0.70% |
| Cox & Mediacom |
7,035,000 |
7,035,000 |
0 |
0.00% |
| Altice |
4,545,400 |
4,576,100 |
-30,700 |
-0.70% |
| T-Mobile FWA |
4,235,000 |
3,678,000 |
557,000 |
15.10% |
| Frontier |
2,881,000 |
2,865,000 |
16,000 |
0.60% |
| Lumen |
2,836,000 |
2,909,000 |
-73,000 |
-2.50% |
| Verizon FWA |
2,679,000 |
2,295,000 |
384,000 |
16.70% |
| Windstream |
1,175,000 |
1,175,000 |
0 |
0.00% |
| Cable ONE |
1,057,400 |
1,057,900 |
-500 |
0.00% |
| Breezeline |
671,762 |
680,785 |
-9,023 |
-1.30% |
| TDS |
532,600 |
523,600 |
9,000 |
1.70% |
| Consolidated |
386,221 |
376,829 |
9,392 |
2.50% |
| Total |
113,878,383 |
112,929,214 |
949,169 |
0.80% |
| Cable |
76,245,562 |
76,240,785 |
4,777 |
0.00% |
| Telco |
30,718,821 |
30,715,429 |
3,392 |
0.00% |
| FWA |
6,914,000 |
5,973,000 |
941,000 |
15.80% |
In the telco sector, the big loser was Lumen, which lost 2.5% of its broadband customers in the quarter. AT&T had a tiny loss, and all other telcos saw growth. Leichtman is not yet separately tracking AT&T’s FWA customers, but AT&T reported recently that it is adding 2,000 FWA customers per week. I assume those are included in the AT&T totals. During this quarter, Frontier grew to have more broadband customers than Lumen – a big turnaround after Frontier lost customers for years.
For the second quarter in a row, the only cable company with positive growth was Charter – its strategy of expanding its footprint into rural areas is clearly covering for losses elsewhere.
FWA cellular companies added more customers than the previous quarter and experienced an enormous 15.8% growth for the quarter. If similar growth happens in the fourth quarter, T-Mobile will pass Altice in size, and Verizon will pass both Frontier and Lumen.
Cable company tactics such as acquiring customers at low promotional prices, then increasing the prices sharply over a year or two are not consumer friendly. It’s not a surprise that people will switch to another carrier offering a good low-latency fixed-wireless service at an everyday low price.