Shentel Up 6,000 Fiber Subs, Seeing Some Starlink Competition
Cable One stock tumbled after an ARPU dip.
WASHINGTON, May 1, 2026 – Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. (Shentel) added about 6,000 fiber subscribers in the first quarter of 2026, the company announced Friday.
The company is aiming to complete its fiber expansion in 2026 and closing in on its target of 510,000 fiber passings in the Mid-Atlantic. Shentel added about 22,000 fiber passings in the quarter for a total of 449,000.
Shentel CEO Ed McKay said on the company’s earrings call that the ISP is expecting fiber penetration rates of about 37 percent once they’ve been in a market for five to seven years. He said markets Shentel launched in 2019 and 2020 have hit an average of 37.5 percent.
Broadband churn was 1.46 percent, which McKay attributed to promotional activity from SpaceX’s satellite broadband service in rural parts of Shentel’s footprint – a $15 monthly discount and free dish. He said in those areas Shentel increased speeds at no cost to compete.
Shentel lost $15 million in the quarter, more than the same time last year, but expects to generate cash again once its buildout is complete in 2027. The company has 205,000 broadband subscribers, with 94,000 fiber subscribers and 111,000 cable subscribers. Shentel lost 600 cable subscribers in the quarter.
Shentel stock was down 8 percent after the call. McKay said the company was expecting “fairly flat” average revenue per user (ARPU) in the near term. Broadband ARPU was $79.90 in the first quarter, down sequentially owing to a decrease in cable ARPU despite a small rise in fiber ARPU.
Cable One
Cable operator Cable One continued to shed subscribers, the company announced Thursday evening.
The company lost 13,500 broadband subscribers and its ARPU fell 1.5 percent, both worse than analysts had been expecting. Cable One ended the quarter with 985,600 business and residential broadband subscribers.
“Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on which way you look at it,” MoffettNathanson founder Craig Moffett wrote in a Thursday investor note. “Is the ARPU weakness from deliberate management action that ultimately expands (or stymies losses in) the subscriber base? Or is it from the challenging operating environment that is unlikely to let up?”
Investors were apparently pessimistic, with the company’s stock down nearly 19 percent Friday.
Jim Holanda, who came on as Cable One’s CEO in February after a 15-year stint at Astound Broadband, said on the company’s earnings call that “while we may see some variability from quarter-to-quarter, we continue to expect ARPU trends to remain broadly stable for the year.”
Moffett noted that was what the company said last quarter.
Fears around whether cable ARPUs would remain depressed for the foreseeable future amid competition from fiber, fixed wireless, and satellite in rural areas contributed in part to Charter and Comcast stocks tumbling last week.
Holanda said churn was elevated in the company’s more competitive markets but that new connections were up year-over-year due to increased interest in budget plans. He said Cable One would focus on attracting those customers
He said Cable One hadn’t seen a consistent go-to-market from SpaceX and that it “shows up in very low circumstances and quantities,” but that the company was keeping an eye on satellite competition.
“I think they’re formidable competitors that could flesh out over time, yet to be determined,” he said.
Cable One is still in the early stages of offering an MVNO mobile service, which it launched just two months ago. The cable giants are focusing on fixed and mobile broadband bundled as a means of retaining more subscribers.
