Comcast continues to claim that fixed wireless is not damaging its home broadband business, and that might well be correct. For any ISP, a customer move is an opportunity to gain or add an account, so lower rates of dwelling change should logically reduce the chances of adding new accounts.
In the second quarter of 2022, Comcast reported a net loss of customer relationships and “flat” home broadband accounts.
That might suggest to some observers that stepped-up telco fiber-to-home and fixed wireless account gains might be starting to change market share dynamics. Those trends possibly were not obvious in the first quarter of 2022.
All that said, there are possible signs of change. Fixed wireless already is driving net home broadband additions for T-Mobile. On its second quarter earnings report, T-Mobile added more than half a million net new home broadband accounts, which might put it on track to be the biggest net gainer for the third quarter in a row.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, fixed wireless represented 74 percent of Verizon net home broadband additions.
Comcast did not gain net accounts for the first time, ever, according to market watchers. Verizon added significant numbers of new home broadband accounts in the same quarter.
One might suggest that, eventually, share loss could become a sustainable trend, as internet service providers step up marketing of FTTH and fixed wireless services. Home moves and housing starts always have been significant drivers of home broadband account gains.
Both of those might be slowing, so slower growth overall is not unexpected. But market share shifts need to be watched, as mobile and fixed network operators increase availability and marketing of competitive home broadband services.
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