With both Comcast and Verizon already reporting quarterly results for 3Q22, wireless services are the star of the show so far.
Comcast reported it added 14K broadband subscribers, which is better than last quarter when they added none. Yet it’s a far cry from the hundreds of thousands of net adds the cable conglomerate has been used to over the past several years.
Company executives forewarned of a bad upcoming 4th quarter, blaming it in large part on the impact of Hurricane Ian in southwest Florida. Tens of thousands of customers have been impacted and the company will lose out on seasonal growth from snowbirds.
But the highlight of the quarter for Comcast comes from its mobile business. The company added 333K mobile lines in 3Q22 and now counts over 5 million mobile lines. By comparison, Verizon only added 8K wireless subscribers if you count consumer and business customers. It lost 189K consumer wireless subscribers.
“We set out to build a different kind of mobile service designed for the way people use their phones today – with the Internet at the center of the experience,” said Dave Watson, CEO, Comcast Cable in a press release. “Our goal is simple – keep our Internet customers happy with a mobile service that offers incredible value; attract new customers who want a great connectivity experience inside and away from the home; and build a profitable business that has a long runway for growth.”
Comcast generated $789M from wireless services, helping contribute to 2.6% growth for its cable business unit, which totaled $16.5B for the quarter.
Verizon Wireless Services
Wireless services are also driving the news at Verizon, but not the kind we’ve historically been used to. While the company only added 8K mobile subscribers, it also added 342K fixed wireless subscribers. That’s almost 6x the 58K Fios FTTH subscribers the company added.
Verizon now counts just over 1 million fixed wireless subscribers, including residential and business. Verizon uses several technology flavors for its fixed wireless services including 5G mmWave, C-band, and 4G LTE.
Verizon generated $18.8 billion in revenue during 3Q22 for its wireless services, up 10% from a year ago. The company just launched a 10-year price guarantee promotion for its fixed wireless and FTTH services.
