Broadband Subscriber Growth Slows To Pre-Pandemic Levels (axios.com) 14
Cable companies are being downgraded by Wall Street analysts in response to weak broadband growth coming out of the pandemic. From a report: Cable companies have managed to stay afloat amid the cord-cutting crisis thanks to their booming broadband businesses. But some analysts see that safety net beginning to fade. Jonathan Chaplin, managing partner at New Street Research, wrote in two notes to clients that the firm has lowered its broadband subscriber estimates for the second time this year for both Charter and Comcast. "We have limited conviction in a quick recovery, given limited visibility all around," he wrote regarding Charter. "We are hoping for a turnaround later in the quarter but have low conviction," he wrote regarding Comcast. Comcast's stock slid last week after it reported flat broadband subscriber additions for the second quarter of 2022. The telecom giant was still able to increase broadband revenues, but its growth has been slowed by increased competition and more users relying on mobile hotspots and fixed wireless plans. Charter lost broadband subscribers for the first time last quarter. Executives cited customers rolling off the government's broadband subsidy program as a major contributor to its customer loss. "Excluding that headwind, we organically grew 38,000 internet customers in the quarter," Charter chief financial officer Jessica Fischer told investors.
Cable is down to $40/mo (Score:3)
Re:Cable is down to $40/mo (Score:4, Insightful)
Compounded by lackluster customer service, predatory pricing, bundling in crap that nobody wants, and lack of innovation to improve service. Small wonder the big players are trying to get into the content business to pad their margins.
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Someone should tell these people what we have been telling cable companies for ages: Upping resolution does jack shit for the quality of your content. We just see more clearly that it's shit.
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Yep!
Back in 2020 I bundled an Xfinity TV package ($89/month) with 300 mbps Internet (another $89/month) and got $50 off. This year that promotion expired. Called to renew it and was told it's no longer offered.
Looked at their website via an incognito browser session and saw the current offer to save requires I'd now need to bundle in my mobile phones.
No thanks. Cancelled TV package.
Quick another government grant program (Score:2)
Why focus on growth? (Score:3)
Worrying about growth in this type of market seems a little stupid. Eventually the customer base approaches 100% and the only growthy you have is people moving out from their parents and into their own residence. Couple that with subscribers dropping off because they're dying (everyone goes eventually) and you can't sustain growth forever.
As long as the business is profitable all is well.
Re:Why focus on growth? (Score:4)
Exactly! They're so concerned about impressing stockholders with higher profit margins, quarter over quarter, I suppose. But seems ridiculous in a business where you're clearly going to peak with a certain average number of subscribed customers.
Plus, every cable provider I know of is marketing cellular phone service too. And many have at least a niche of selling home security products that are broadband-connected.
There are clearly ways to turn a consistent profit in the business, which seems like what companies should really be striving for anyway.
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Eventually the customer base approaches 100%
Not all broadband is equal. There is additional profits in moving your customer to higher bandwidth tiers. See cellphones going from 2G to 3G, 4G and now 5G.
I am not sure what is slowest speed that FCC still regard as "broadband", but it sure as hell have a lot of difference compared to 1Gbps.
Downloading a 50GB game patch or OS patch used to take hours, now it is done in minutes. Everyone in the house watching a different video stream is now nothing unusual. As people uses more and more bandwidth, there
Cell Phones (Score:2)
From what I see, all young people live on Cell Phones, same seems to be true with marketing. Where I work there are many projects to allow Cell Phone access to Corporate Data.
The only people that seems to need broadband are old or developers or the paranoid (vpn/tor) because they need larger screens. Everyone else, not so much.
Re: Cell Phones (Score:2)
Some areas are not/not well served by cell phones. My cell phone makes Wi-Fi calls. When Comcast goes down, I can't call or text from inside the house either. It's not frequent anymore, fortunately.
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My symmetrical gig fiber with no restrictions of any kind costs me $65/month. When I was being metered by Cable, I routinely exceeded a terabyte a month. Cell service doesn't even come close to comparing in any way whatsoever.