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# Optimum Beats on Broadband Losses, but Debt Looms
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/optimum-beats-on-broadband-losses-but-debt-looms/
- Published: 2026-08-06T17:03:19.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-18T21:48:29.000Z
- Description: The company expanded its MVNO deal with T-Mobile
- Author: Jake Neenan
- Tags: Earnings, Dennis Mathew, Optimum, Craig Moffett, Vikash Harlalka, #with-siderail

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2026 – Optimum Communications lost 40,000 broadband subscribers in the second quarter, fewer than analysts expected but more than the same time last year.

The cable operator also reported increased broadband average revenue per user (ARPU), both sequentially and year-over-year when Wall Street had expected a decline.

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“An improvement in broadband subscriber results with ARPU growth is what every Cable investor is hoping for from all the major operators,” New Street Research analyst **Vikash Harlalka** wrote in an investor note. “Optimum delivered on that this quarter where the other two large operators missed.”

The company’s stock was up more than 2 percent after [its earnings call](https://investors.optimum.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/239/optimum-reports-second-quarter-2026-results?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) Thursday.

But analysts said a $26 billion cloud hung over those otherwise positive results. Optimum has a large amount of debt coming due in the coming years, including $6 billion starting in 2027, and is trying to cut a restructuring deal with lenders.

“All parties obviously understand that a negotiated settlement is coming. But there is a great deal left to be gained or lost in the settlement terms,” MoffettNathanson founder **Craig Moffett** wrote in an investor note.

To that end, Optimum [earlier this summer](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/optimum-raises-500-million-as-debt-wall-looms/) placed its eastern footprint and Lightpath business in a subsidiary that lenders (at least arguably) can’t touch. That makes it possible the company subsidiary that holds all the debt might go into bankruptcy, according to Moffett.

And that prospect makes it more likely that lenders will be forced to the table to make a deal, according to New Street, since recovering against only the western footprint is a less attractive prospect.

“We believe that the measures we have taken increase the likelihood of a consensual, comprehensive deal and mitigate the potential adverse impact of failing to achieve such a resolution,” Optimum CEO **Dennis Mathew** said. “That work is ongoing, and we are approaching it deliberately with the goal of reaching an outcome that supports the long-term health of the business.”

The company did not give other updates on the process during the call. Optimum is currently suing the giant investment firms that lent it money, accusing them of colluding to keep the price of the company’s debt high.

### *Broadband, mobile subscribers*

While the company lost 40,000 broadband subscribers on net, it gained 20,000 fiber customers, and added 9,000 subscribers by negotiating bulk billing deals in apartments it already served.

Mathew said SpaceX’s satellite service had not been a major source of competition. Subscriber churn was still high because of promotional offers from other competitors, he said. The company is also decomissioning about 48,000 passings in very low-penetration parts of its western footprint.

Optimum counted nearly 4,050,000 broadband subscribers at the end of the quarter, including nearly 750,000 fiber subscribers.

The company also added 50,000 mobile lines, its best second quarter ever, for a total of 724,000\. Mathew said nearly 9 percent of Optimum’s broadband subscribers took a mobile line.

Video losses of 46,000 were the lowest in six years. Bundling video and mobile with broadband is a big part of Optimum’s plan to stem continued broadband subscriber losses to fiber and fixed wireless.

Moffett wrote that it was strange to see broadband ARPU increase despite Optimum’s new ultra-cheap $25 plans, and not necessarily a good thing.

Cable companies like Optimum are trying to bring prices down to be more competitive and address longstanding consumer frustration over price hikes, and Optimum’s $75.11 is still higher than the cable giants and AT&T’s fiber unit, he noted.

“Optimum’s best alternative is instead to compete based on converged pricing” with fixed and mobile bundles, he wrote. “Optimum’s converged pricing is lower than that of its competitors. Bundling with mobility is therefore at least as important as standalone pricing when thinking about fixing the broadband value proposition.” 

The company offers its mobile service on T-Mobile’s infrastructure through a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deal. Optimum expanded that deal to cover extra wearable devices in the quarter, Mathew said.