Cable One Down 17,000 Broadband Subs, Optimistic About Mobile
Also recently reported results: Liberty, Uniti, and Tucows
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2026 – Cable One lost 17,100 consumer broadband subscribers in the second quarter, in line with estimates the company disclosed in a financial filing last month.
The cable operator shed 300 business subscribers, for a total of 968,200 broadband customers.
Among those, average revenue per user (ARPU) was $80.56, a slight decrease year-over-year but an increase from last quarter.
The metric will have to fall further for Cable One to reverse subscriber losses, MoffettNathanson founder Craig Moffett wrote in an investor note. He pointed out that other cable companies, as well as fiber and fixed wireless competitors, had lower ARPUs and thus more attractive prices.
“Cable One’s broadband pricing arguably positions the company to compete only at the high end, a problematic positioning given the relatively weak demographics of Cable One’s footprint,” he wrote. “The company’s balance sheet constraints limit its ability to cut prices aggressively — or even broadly — but that shouldn’t preclude greater nimbleness in addressing value-conscious customers among whom today Cable One is underrepresented.”
Cable One launched its mobile service in March of this year, mirroring many of the national ISPs’ strategy of reducing switching by bundling fixed and mobile broadband.
“While it remains small relative to our core broadband operations today, customer adoption trends and the pace of growth across the platform are encouraging,” CEO Jim Holanda said on the company’s earnings call Thursday. “Customers have known us as a broadband provider for many years, and we expect it will take time for customers to view us as a mobile provider.”
Cable One CFO Todd Koetje said that efforts to attract new customers would “have some pressure on ARPU” going forward, and said an analyst’s prediction that subscriber trends would start to improve year-over-year “a fair assessment.”
Executives said the company wasn’t seeing meaningful competition from SpaceX’s satellite broadband service.
Cable One reported $349 million in total revenue and a net loss of $1.16 billion. The latter was due largely to some non-cash impairments related to its investment in Vyve Broadband. The cable company is in the process of fully acquiring Vyve, but is in conflict with other Vyve lenders over the terms.
Liberty Capital
Liberty Capital Corporation, formerly GCI Liberty, acquired a fixed wireless provider in the second quarter for $11 million, along with its 5,400 broadband subscribers.
The Alaska-based cable operator also lost 500 subscribers in its existing footprint, for a total of 155,400. It also added 1,700 postpaid mobile lines for a total of 167,000.
Liberty is acquiring Alaska longhaul fiber provider Quintillion for $310 million. CEO Ron Duncan said on the company’s earnings call Thursday that Liberty expected that deal to close this year.
The company is also initiating a dividend as it expects capex to fall after this year. Liberty reported $261 million in revenue for the second quarter and $59 million in free cash flow over the prior 12 months.
Duncan said SpaceX’s satellite broadband service “remains a viable broadband competitor, and we take that competition seriously.” He noted the two companies have partnerships on business connectivity and as a backup in remote communities.
Uniti Group
Uniti’s residential broadband business added 38,000 new fiber subscribers in the second quarter, its most ever, for a total of 603,000.
That fiber footprint expanded by 141,000, now reaching 2.1 million homes. That’s about 46 percent of the company’s consumer footprint, CFO Paul Bullington said on the company’s earnings call last week.
The company is aiming to reach 3.5 million homes by the end of 2029, he said.
Fiber ARPU was $76.97, down year-over-year. CEO Kenneth Gunderman said this had to do in part with pricing competition from cable companies, and Bullington pointed to the timing of rate adjustments.
“For the remainder of the year, we expect Consumer Fiber ARPU to decrease low single digits year-over-year in the third quarter, but should stabilize in the fourth quarter with an expected increase of low single digits year-over-year,” Bullington said.
The company is still aiming for 2-3 percent ARPU growth in 2027 and after.
Uniti reported revenue of $910 million and a net loss of $156 million on the quarter. Rumors of T-Mobile being interested in acquiring Uniti’s fiber business did not come up on the call.
Tucows
Tucows Ting Internet brand added 3,700 fiber subscribers, for a total of 60,500. Ting brought in $21 million in revenue.
The company is still planning to sell Ting, which “continues to be an important priority for management and the board,” Tucows CEO David Woroch said on the company’s earnings call Thursday.
“We expected this process to move more quickly, but there are interdependencies for an efficient transaction that we are solving for,” he said.
The company bought back some shares from an investor last week, which Woroch said was part of that process. Tucows doesn’t expect to make much money on the sale, given Ting’s existing debt.
