Altice USA Loses 50,000 Broadband Subscribers in Q3
Larger cable companies had reported fewer than expected losses.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2024 – Altice USA reported net broadband subscriber losses of 50,000 in the third quarter on Monday, with 10,000 of those coming from the shuttered Affordable Connectivity Program.
In line with analyst expectations, the losses were about even with what the company saw last quarter and down from nearly 31,000 lost subscribers in the same period last year.
The company managed to add 47,000 fiber subscribers though, for a total of 482,000. The majority of those were existing customers whom Altice migrated to fiber as it continues to upgrade its infrastructure.
Altice finished the quarter with nearly 4.4 million total broadband subscribers.
Cable giants Comcast and Charter have said they would have returned to broadband subscriber growth without losses from former ACP participants – cable has been shedding subscribers to fiber providers fixed wireless internet from the major mobile carriers.
Dennis Matthew, Altice’s CEO, said the company was still seeing stiff competition from fiber and fixed wireless, but “we are happy with our win-loss percentage continuing to improve, as we’re starting to compete a bit better with our hyper local go-to-market strategies.”
MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wasn’t so optimistic. The company’s broadband losses “suggest that they are nowhere near out of the woods,” he wrote in an investor note after the call. “If the rest of the industry is indeed showing signs of a recovery, Altice should perhaps be given the benefit of the doubt. But to be clear, the numbers aren’t yet giving reason.”
Matthew said the company plans to hit 500,000 fiber subscribers by the end of the year and, through “more targeted acquisition and migration strategies,” to hit 1 million by the end of 2026.
Altice finished the quarter with 9.8 million passings, including 2.9 million fiber passings. The company built out to 159,000 new fiber locations in that time and is aiming for 175,000 new passings across its network by the end of the year.
But, “our major focus now is penetration,” Matthew said.
On the mobile side, Altice added 36,000 new customers in the quarter for a total of 420,000. The company operates a virtual network on T-Mobile infrastructure.
About 5 percent of the company’s broadband base also takes that mobile service, which Matthews noted results in lower churn than non-converged customers.
