Cord Cutting 2.0 is growing faster than ever even as cable TV companies struggled to add new customers in the third quarter, according to a report from Leichtman Research Group. In the period, cable TV companies added around 5,000 new internet customers, while T-Mobile and Verizon added 941,000 customers.
T-Mobile alone added 557,000 new 5G Home Internet customers during that same period that the entire cable TV industry added 5,000. This makes T-Mobile the fastest-growing home internet provider.
“Top broadband providers added about 950,000 subscribers in 3Q 2023, largely attributable to the most quarterly net adds ever for fixed wireless services,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “Over the past year, fixed wireless services have accounted for 101% of the approximately 3,625,000 net broadband additions.”
This all comes as cord cutting 2.0 is growing fast as Americans look for more ways to save money in 2023. So what is cord cutting 2.0? Cord Cutting 1.0 was cutting the cord on cable TV. Now in 2023, cord cutting 2.0 is about eliminating the physical line for home internet and getting new options. This move to break 100% free from major cable TV companies not just for video, but the internet also is what many call cord cutting 2.0.
Increasingly, 5G home internet is becoming the new favorite way for many Americans to get home internet.
AT&T has also launched 5G home internet services to bring home internet options to Americans who have not had options in the past. While Leichtman didn’t account for AT&T’s numbers, the company disclosed on its conference call that it added 25,000 new 5G home internet customers in the third quarter.
Verizon added more than 434,000 broadband customers, including 384,000 5G wireless home internet customers. This is great news for Verizon’s hope to grow its home internet service by offering 5G home internet. Overall, Verizon saw broadband customer additions jump 11.8% compared to the same period in 2022.
During the three months of the third quarter of 2023, T-Mobile added 557,000 5G Home Internet customers. That works out to be more than 6,000 new 5G Home Internet customers added every day. That is up from the 509,000 5G Home Internet customers T-Mobile added in the second quarter of 2023.
This comes as Comcast lost 18,000 home internet customers. Unlike Comcast, Spectrum does not break out its residential internet customers from its small business customers. Spectrum reported adding 60,000 home and small business internet customers in the third 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. Now internet is on the front line of the next generation of cord cutting as cord cutters look for new ways to save money.
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