When people talk about cord cutting they often talk about the idea of canceling cable TV and streaming content online. Now that more Americans are cord cutters than there are Americans who pay for cable TV, we are moving into cord cutting 2.0.
Now Americans have decided to cut the cord fully on their old cable TV company. Now they want to cut the internet and move away from cable TV. Increasingly that is becoming possible thanks to new internet options, including fiber, 5G home internet, satellite internet, wireless internet, and more.
Recently T-Mobile announced it had added 523,000 home internet customers in the 1st quarter of 2023. That number is more new home internet customers than AT&T, Comcast, Charter, and Verizon added in the 4th quarter of 2022 combined, according to T-Mobile. This comes as Americans are being drawn to cheaper new options, including T-Mobile’s $ 50-a-month home internet service.
Verizon also offers a 5G internet service that starts as low as $25 a month. Now AT&T has also announced a wireless 5G called AT&T Internet Air to compete with T-Mobile and Verizon’s 5G service.
AT&T’s offering seems to focus on markets where its Fiber networks have not reached yet. This is a very different strategy from T-Mobile and Verizon.
A host of other smaller internet providers have recently started to pop up, offering high-speed internet options in a growing number of areas.
In the past, most Americans had maybe two internet options where they lived. Increasingly Americans now have more options. These new options are giving cord cutters the ability to cut the cord fully on their old cable TV company by ditching their internet for a new provider.
This raises real questions about how cable companies will respond if both their TV and internet revenue is being challenged by new competitors.