The largest cable, wireline phone and fixed wireless access (FWA) providers had a better second quarter this year than they had in the year-ago quarter, according to the Leichtman Research Group.
These companies had a net gain of about 840,000 subscribers during this year’s second quarter, compared to about 700,000 in the year-ago quarter.
FWA and 5G home Internet services from T-Mobile and Verizon had another very good quarter with about 893,000 new subscribers, which beat the 815,000 net additions in the year-ago quarter. Overall, the category has added more than 800,000 net additions during five consecutive quarters.
In all, the top broadband companies ended the quarter with 112,894,214 subscribers. Leichtman Research found that in total 840,733 subscribers were added. Highlights of the quarter:
- The top cable companies added about 10,000 subscribers this year, compared to a loss of about 60,000 in the year-ago quarter.
- The top wireline phone companies lost about 60,000 total broadband subscribers similar to the approximately 60,000 net losses in the year ago quarter.
- Wireline telcos had about 450,000 net additions via fiber and about 510,000 non-fiber net losses.
“Top broadband providers added about 840,000 subscribers in 2Q 2023, led by another strong quarter from fixed wireless,” Leichtman Research Group president and principal analyst Bruce Leichtman said in a press release. “Fixed wireless services have acquired over 800,000 net adds in each of the past five quarters, accounting for about 4.45 million net adds in that period.”
Cable companies ended the quarter with 76,240,785 subscribers. The top five:
- Comcast: 32,305,000 (subscribers at the end of the second quarter of 20230; 19,000 net losses
- Charter: 30,586,000; 77,000 net adds
- Altice: 4,576,100; 36,600 net losses
- Cable One: 1,057,900; 5,100 net losses
- Breezeline: 680,785; 6,734 losses
Wireline phone companies ended the quarter with 30,715,429 subscribers. The top seven:
- AT&T: 15,304,000 (subscribers at the end of the second quarter of 20230; 41,000 net losses
- Verizon: 7,562,000; 34,000 net gain
- Lumen: 2,909,000; 72,000 net losses
- Frontier: 2,865,000; 2,000 net adds
- Windstream: 1,175,000; no change
- TDS; 523,600; 8,200 net adds
- Consolidated: 376,829; 6,967 net adds