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# Some Smaller ISPs Feeling Pressure to Bundle
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/some-smaller-isps-feeling-pressure-to-bundle/
- Published: 2026-08-14T18:17:41.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-04T21:47:15.000Z
- Description: National wireless carriers and cable operators are leaning into convergence
- Author: Jake Neenan
- Tags: Wireless, GFiber, VistaBeam, Matt Larsen, Roger Timmerman, UTOPIA Fiber, #with-siderail, mountain connect 2026, alberto garcia

DENVER, Aug. 14, 2026 – Nationwide broadband providers are leaning into plans that bundle fixed and mobile broadband, which makes subscribers less likely to switch.

Some smaller ISPs are now feeling pressure to provide similar offers, they said at Mountain Connect here this week.

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“Talking to our door-to-door team, the number one obstacle they face when they’re going to talk to a new customer is somebody saying, ‘Oh, we'd love to get you, but my phone is with this other company, or my TV is with this other company,’” said **Alberto Garcia**, GFiber’s government affairs manager.

GFiber is merging with cable operator Astound, although Google will remain a “significant minority shareholder.” When the companies announced the deal in March, New Street Research estimated GFiber’s footprint at about 2.8 million passings.

“I see the benefits of bundling if you want to keep your customers. It’s really hard to get them to change that,” Garcia said. “It’s going to have to be a whole process for them to unbundle all of it.”

Still GFiber is sticking with its internet-only model and not offering bundles, he said.

Vistabeam, a fiber and fixed wireless provider in Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming, has a mobile offering in the works. The company has about 7,000 subscribers.

**Matt Larsen**, the company’s CEO, said he had “not been a big fan of bundling” and that the company was “begrudgingly doing a little bit of it” to compete where necessary rather than making it a core offering.

“It’s been used more as a lever on behalf of the corporate side of the equation, as opposed to the customer,” he said. “It makes it a lot harder for somebody to switch.”

National broadband providers do indeed report much less churn among their converged customers. AT&T, Verizon, Charter, and Comcast are all leaning into selling as many bundles as possible to keep that churn low.

T-Mobile hasn’t emphasized convergence as much, but it does have millions of fixed wireless customers and has acquired multiple regional fiber providers through joint ventures.

Larsen didn’t say which mobile carrier’s network the service would use. The cable giants offer their mobile services through a deal with Verizon.

**Roger Timmerman**, executive director of UTOPIA Fiber, an open access provider operated by a consortium of cities in Utah, said they made it possible for ISPs using the network to offer bundles. That goes for both wireless and video services, similar to bundles offered by cable providers.

He said the provider was also somewhat against bundling, but recognized that an ISP might feel it was necessary to have one if they wanted to compete with a national carrier.

UTOPIA operates in 23 cities. Timmerman didn’t say which wireless operator the company had partnered with on its mobile service.

The operators described putting an increased focus on customer service as a means of differentiating themselves, since customers are increasingly starting to take high speeds, even those offered by fiber, for granted.