As cord cutting has matured and helped millions save money on TV, cord cutters now have new ways to save money. The Internet. Cord cutting has come for Internet services, which will make it easy to save money with cord cutting 2.0.
What is cord cutting 2.0? Cord cutting 1.0 was cutting the cord on cable TV. In 2024, cord cutting 2.0 is about cutting the cord on expensive home Internet and getting new, less expensive options.
Cord cutting 2.0 took off in 2023 as we saw Verizon and T-Mobile add 941,000 5G home Internet customers in the third quarter. That was up from the 890,000 they added in the second quarter. This news comes as most cable TV companies lost Internet subscribers in the third quarter of 2023.
Cable broadband providers like Comcast and Spectrum are facing new competition not only from 5G home Internet services but also from fiber, fixed wireless access service providers, satellite services, and more. For the first time ever, Americans finally have options for home Internet, and they are starting to cut the Internet cord.
This new access to more Internet service options has—for the first time—made it possible to completely break free from cable TV companies: Not only from the TV service but also from the Internet service.
New providers are not the only factor contributing to subscriber losses. Pricing is heavily factored into peoples’ decisions on whether to switch providers.
AT&T has also launched 5G home Internet services in 2023 to bring home Internet options to Americans who have not had options in the past.
Much like in the early days of cord cutting 1.0, the growth of 2.0 is slow right now. We are waiting for more providers to join the market. Amazon announced plans to start offering home Internet next year. Other providers are quickly building out new kinds of Internet to give Americans options.
Now as we move farther into 2024, cord cutting 2.0 is poised for rapid growth as Spectrum—one of the few cable TV companies to still be adding new Internet customers—says it expects to lose customers in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Over the next five years, cable providers will have to deal with a growing number of competitors in a business that was once seen as their safe bet to fight cord cutting. Internet is the front line of the next generation of cord cutting.
Please follow us on Facebook and X for more news, tips, and reviews. Need cord cutting tech support? Join our Cord Cutting Tech Support Facebook Group for help.