Comcast Down 199,000 Broadband Subs
The company said it was making an effort to address consumer frustration on pricing.
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2025 – Comcast reported 199,000 lost broadband subscribers in the first quarter of 2025, worse than the 150,000 analysts had been expecting.
“In this intensely competitive environment, we are not winning in the marketplace in a way that is commensurate with the strength of our network,” Mike Cavanagh, Comcast’s president, said on the company’s earnings call Thursday.
Cavanagh said the company had identified a lack of transparency and predictability on pricing as a partial cause of that. The company in response launched a new pricing plan earlier this month that costs more initially but is slower to increase than its current plans. The new plan offers a five-year price lock, after which a customer’s monthly bill would increase by $28, plus a free mobile line for the first year.
“We’re using this as a moment to get away from a model that at least partially relied on deep discounting upfront, but then increasingly results in untenable increases after promotional periods,”said Dave Watson, CEO of Comcast Cable.
The company is the largest ISPs in the country, ending the quarter with more than 30.5 million subscribers.
Analysts had been expecting broadband growth to return to normal after the expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program drove millions of disconnects last year, but New Street Research analysts said it so far hasn’t materialized.
“So far it looks like the broadband market is off to a slow start in 2025,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin wrote in a research note ahead of the Comcast call. “As the market has slowed, FWA and fiber trends have been steady, and Cable has borne the brunt.”
Wireless and convergence
Comcast said last quarter it would be leaning into its wireless service as a way to attract and retain customers amid continued losses, and the company reported 323,000 new mobile subscribers in the first quarter of 2025, more than analysts had been expecting and up from 289,000 the same time last year.
The company announced new mobile promotions this month, offering a free line for one year to existing as well as new customers and a new premium plan. T-Mobile and Verizon also brought out new promotions this quarter, with five and three-year price locks respectively.
“We believe increased competitive intensity in 1Q25 is driven by carriers needing to fight harder for adds in a shrinking pool,” Chaplin wrote.
Jason Armstrong, Comcast’s CFO, said the company would continue ramping up efforts to get its fixed broadband subscribers to take up the mobile service.
“With penetration at just 13 percent of our residential broadband customer base, we have significant runway for growth and expect continued momentum in subscriber growth in the coming quarters,” he said.
The company now counts 8.1 million mobile subscribers.
“It will take time before Comcast’s wireless business is large enough that it meaningfully helps broadband net adds. But we believe that day will come,” MoffettNathanson founder Craig Moffett said in an investor note.
Brian Roberts, the company's chairman, said he was confident in the new approaches.
“The team has a sense of urgency and energy and focus to getting customer pain points resolved,” he said, adding “we have real momentum in wireless and a path to continue to accelerate that.”
