Wireless players are increasingly competitive, gaining a larger share of the US residential home internet market. Fixed wireless and satellite are disrupting the market, while more traditional players are deploying fiber and upgrading their existing infrastructure to support higher uplink and downlink speeds.

Mobile and Fixed Players: Towards Network Convergence
In Q4 2024, MNO FWA adoption grew from an estimated 9.3M to 10.2M US residential home internet connections. At the same time, the adoption of MVNO services from cable MSOs and other ISPs reached nearly 18M residential customer mobile lines, up from nearly 17M in the third quarter. Consumers increasingly expect to have home internet and mobile available from the same provider. This trend is underway in Canada as well, with the three major Canadian telcos all offering MNO FWA services, albeit largely targeted to rural areas.

Cablecos Face a Challenging Competitive Environment, but are Responding
Major cablecos, including Comcast, Charter Spectrum, and Altice, lost an estimated 400K combined broadband subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024 in the face of competition with MNO FWA and fiber, in addition to the impact of several hurricanes striking the east coast.

In its earnings call, Comcast shared that its convergence strategy has been key in achieving all-time high revenues in the face of strong competition, the company hitting 7.8M mobile lines and reaching 12% penetration of its broadband customer base. Comcast’s strategy is to lean on its footprint of 23M Wi-Fi hotspots to offer ultra-high speeds greater than those supported by 5G networks under real-world conditions, up to 1GB. Comcast is additionally leveraging DOCSIS upgrades and network virtualization, under its Project Genesis, to further improve speed and performance. The company reports that it has fully virtualized 50% of its network and expects to reach 70% by the end of 2025. Comcast aims to deploy symmetrical multigigabit speeds across every market it serves.

ISPs Signal a Realignment Away from Pay TV
Currently, 46% of US internet households are cord-cutters and 12% are cord-nevers. Smaller ISPs have embraced partnership and reseller models, companies of all sizes have experimented with offering streaming video services to their customers, and most notably, pay-TV leader AT&T exited the market by spinning out DIRECTV into a separate company. Now, Comcast looks to also divest itself of pay-TV assets, through spinning off select cable TV networks into a separate company.

In November 2024, Comcast announced that it was spinning off NBCUniversal cable TV networks into a new company. This spin-off, which Comcast has said will be tax-free, will exist as an independent company. NBCUniversal will retain its broadcast and streaming media properties, including NBC entertainment, sports, news, Bravo, Telemundo, the theme parks business, including Universal Studios, and film and television studios. This transaction does not impact Peacock, as it relies on assets that will be retained by NBCUniversal.

Find more insights into key market trends, competitor moves, partnerships, and new research in Parks Associates’ Broadband Market Tracker.