Cable One Down 21,200 Broadband Subs
The company pointed to promotional roll offs and a billing system migration, plus stiff industry competition.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2025 – Cable One lost a total of 21,200 broadband subscribers in the third quarter, the worst result in years.
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“There’s no doubt that the third quarter customer loss was disappointing,” CEO Julia Laulis said on the company’s earnings call Thursday.
She attributed the poor showing to a confluence of factors, including tough competition from fixed wireless and fiber, customers rolling off promotional prices, and a billing system migration.
For a potential silver lining, she said new connections were slightly better in the third quarter than the same time last year and had continued to get better in October. Losses had returned to pre-third quarter levels in October as well, she said, implying the fourth quarter would be more in line with expectations.
Moving to a new billing system can cause delays in the billing cycle, meaning some customers get a higher than expected bill, Laulis said. That, combined with people who had signed up for promotional plans being transitioned to normal, higher prices, led to what the company said was a one-time flood of disconnects.
That doesn’t mean the company will return to subscriber growth, something not anticipated for cable operators in the near future.
AT&T's fixed wireless was particularly aggressive
Todd Koetje, Cable One’s CFO, called out AT&T’s fixed wireless service as being particularly aggressive, especially in areas where the carrier still only had copper infrastructure.
Cable One counts a total of 1,010,100 broadband subscribers. The company said it would begin piloting its nascent mobile service in certain markets later this month.
The ISP is eventually hoping that bundling fixed and mobile broadband will keep customers around longer, something the cable giants and wireless carriers say they observe. Laulis said the company would share more after the trial was over.
The company’s average revenue per user (ARPU), ticked up again to $82.17. Laulis said that was because of the promo expirations and some other pricing changes from the last quarter.
Cable One’s ARPU outpaces the cable giants and major fiber providers, which analysts have flagged as an indicator it will need to hold off on raising prices to retain customers. Laulis said a price hike wasn’t planned at the moment.
The company has launched two cheaper tiers of broadband plans aimed at competing with fixed wireless and appealing to the most low-income households.
The search for a new CEO was still underway after the company announced Laulis was retiring this summer. She’ll stay on as an advisor through 2026.
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