U.S. Broadband Customer Growth Slows to Pre-Pandemic Levels in Q1, With Every Sector Losing Steam
The U.S. home internet business experienced total customer growth of just 2.3% in the first quarter, according to new findings from equity research company MoffettNathanson, with expansion decelerating by more than half from where it stood in Q1 2021, when the pace stood at 4.9%.
The title of MoffettNathanson's report, U.S. Broadband: When Everything Slows, kind of says it all -- every sector of the business decelerated between January - March.
That starts with the U.S. cable business, which saw its customer base erode by 0.5%, or 169,000 customers.
The general consensus has been that cable is being undercut by upstart fixed wireless access competition from T-Mobile and Verizon, which are undercutting MSOs on price.
But the FWA market, which is limited by the finite inventory of excess 5G wireless network capacity, slowed its roll to in Q1.
Notably, growth of fiber-to-the-home broadband service declined narrowly to 10.6% in the first quarter.
MoffettNathanson ties the market's deceleration to the also slowed expansion of the broader U.S. housing market, which the company said, with new household creation dropping into the red by 311,000 units.
