Altice USA Down 37,000 Broadband Subs

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2025 – Altice USA reported a net loss of 37,000 broadband subscribers in the first quarter of 2025, worse than analysts had been expecting. The cable operator gained 68,700 fiber subscribers for its best quarter yet on that front.

The company also reported 33,200 new fiber passings, for a total of nearly 3 million out of its overall 9.85 million-location footprint. Of those, nearly 607,000 have signed up for fiber service.

Altice USA’s mobile service added 49,000 new lines, beating expectations and bringing its total wireless subscribers to 508,500. The company said more than 6 percent of its 4.3 million broadband customers had also taken up a mobile plan, a slight increase from last quarter but still lower than Comcast and Charter. Cable companies have been leaning into bundling their fixed and mobile broadband services in a bid to stave off subscriber losses.

Dennis Mathew, the company’s CEO, was optimistic about expanding the wireless service, saying Altice’s fixed broadband subscriber base represented “a meaningful growth opportunity to continue to drive convergence.”

Last month Altice USA launched a new plan targeted at low-income households, which Mathew said would help the company compete in more economically disadvantaged areas and places with heavier competition, while taking prices up in less competitive areas.

“​​Price increases make us nervous,” New Street Research Analyst Jonathan Chaplin wrote in a research note after the company’s earnings call, noting the move could frustrate subscriber retention. “We would assume they are making high-quality decisions as they try to segment the market more finely, but this is an issue to watch.”

Executive said the company inked a deal this week to sell some of its towers for $60 million, which they expect to close by early next quarter.

Chaplin wrote in a note earlier this week that overall broadband net adds are lower than expected, a trend that’s largely a result of losses from cable companies.

“Net adds declined slightly from an already weak 1Q24. They are ~40 percent below the 700k+ norm that preceded the pandemic,” he wrote.

He wrote that some major cable operators posited this could be a result of lingering effects from the expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program last spring, with subscribers slowly reverting back to only subscribing to mobile service and ditching their fixed broadband. The subsidy program provided internet discounts to more than 23 million low-income households.

“If correct, it would mean that the ACP unwind didn’t end in 4Q24 as we all thought it did. In the initial phase of the unwind, the companies did a great job, hanging on to 90 percent of their ACP subs,” he wrote. “However, affordability is still an issue. That base is continuing to erode. If correct, the next question is how much of this base is still at risk?”