Traditional Big Broadband Providers Stagnate

In the first quarter of 2022, the big cable companies added 482,000 customers while telecommunications companies (telecos) added over 50,000 customers. In what is a surprise to the industry, that growth has disappeared in the second quarter, and all of the big broadband providers collectively lost almost 150,000 customers. That’s a loss of 60,000 customers for the cable companies and 88,000 for the big telcos. The other big news is that the fixed wireless access (FWA) products of T-Mobile and Verizon added 816,000 customers in the second quarter to bring the sector to net growth of 668,000 customers. This is huge news – FWA is booming while the big ISPs are standing still. The FWA product is home broadband delivered using cellular frequencies. T-Mobile and Verizon are aggressively marketing the product, which is touted to have download speeds over 100 Mbps. The market is going to get even hotter when AT&T and Dish networks enter the market in a big way. Ultimately, second quarter numbers illustrate the following: the net loss for cable companies--upon decades of quarterly growth--is very surprising; fiber continues to expand its customer base; and T-Mobile has become the 9th largest broadband provider in the country.