378

Comcast's attempt to slow broadband customer losses still isn't stopping the bleeding as fiber and fixed wireless competition intensifies. In Q4 2025 alone, Comcast lost 181,000 broadband subscribers, even as it leans harder into wireless bundling and other business lines like Peacock and theme parks. Ars Technica reports:

The Q4 net loss is more than the 176,000 loss predicted by analysts, although not as bad as the 199,000-customer loss that spurred [Comcast President Mike Cavanagh's] comment about Comcast "not winning in the marketplace" nine months ago. The Q4 2025 loss reported today is also worse than the 139,000-customer loss in Q4 2024 and the 34,000-customer loss in Q4 2023.

"Subscriber losses were 181,000, as the early traction we are seeing from our new initiatives was more than offset by continued competitive intensity," Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong said during an earnings call today, according to a Motley Fool transcript. Comcast's residential broadband customers dropped to 28.72 million, while business broadband customers dropped to 2.54 million, for a total of 31.26 million.

Armstrong said that average revenue per user grew 1.1 percent, "consistent with the deceleration that we had previewed reflecting our new go-to-market pricing, including lower everyday pricing and strong adoption of free wireless lines." Armstrong expects average revenue per user to continue growing slowly "for the next couple of quarters, driven by the absence of a rate increase, the impact from free wireless lines, and the ongoing migration of our base to simplified pricing." Comcast Connectivity & Platforms chief Steve Croney said the firm is facing "a more competitive environment from fiber" and continued competition from fixed wireless. "The market is going to remain intensely competitive," he said.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] plz1@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago

Long term FAFO, for them. They burned a customer for life, with me, when they laid data caps down.

[-] m3t00@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

finally got fiber and price hasn't changed in 5 years. Comcast/xfinity annual beg for better price. felt good to cancel

[-] Stupidmanager@lemmy.world 46 points 5 days ago

Maybe, just maybe, Comcast should have spent all those government subsidies to update its infrastructure to full fiber and not bullshit like packet shaping, inspection and throttling to improve its bottom line and stop customers from using to the fullest extent the very thing we were paying for.

Before I moved, the local government subsidized fiber came into my neighborhood in 6 months (I was pretty far out there in the burbs) and I had 4gbit fiber for $80 a month compared to the forced triple play package I was locked into so I could have the fastest speed from Comcast (800mbit/30mbit) for astounding $350 a month. Top that off, I had a data cap I nearly exceeded monthly of 1tb and that cost and additional $50 for “unlimited“.

So good riddance Comcast/xfinity.

[-] daq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 5 days ago

Fucking hate all the coax providers. Absolute monopoly granted to them in insane. I'm stuck with an even worse one - Spectrum. No other options where I live. Tmo home internet is cheaper but it's not reliable enough despite a $400 antenna pointed directly at their tower. And CGNAT breaks a ton of shit.

load more comments (10 replies)
[-] Vanth@reddthat.com 115 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Within the past year I shopped around for a new home internet provider. The legacy companies encouraged if not required talking to a human being to find out anything about service availability and rates and then be subject to a hard sales pitch. Appointment availability for the install was 2+ weeks out. The new fiber companies had all the info I could want clearly online, appointments available within 2 days, with minimal fuss. The legacy company humans were also often incorrect about their own product, potentially lying to make a sale.

If they act like a company from the 90s, they aren't going to capture customers who came into adulthood after that.

That's not even touching on the speeds they offer are slower than their competitors for a steeper price.

[-] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 28 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I can understand that speeds vary by area, but it's not like it's difficult at all to have those in a database where a web tool can return them based on your zip code. But yeah, it was like that when I signed up with Optimum (nee Suddenlink) years ago.

The other thing they do is require a truck roll for any kind of hookup. They almost got some of my business back but were so rigid that I said "the hell with it". My fiber provider was having some growing pains and I called Optimum to reactivate my service on a lower plan to use as a backup connection (I work from home). All they needed to do was setup the account and re-authorize my modem (my hookup was still live and I had my own modem). They flat out refused to do any of that and required a tech to come "within 3-5 business days" and read the modem serial number to them to activate it. So I said hell with it, called T-Mobile, and activated my old 5G hotspot.

[-] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Or the poor reputations they have of never doing anything because they owned the market. We remember "Time Warner Cable".

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago

I’m currently moving from a place where my only options are AT&T or the cable company to a place where my only options are AT&T or the cable company.

[-] Vanth@reddthat.com 7 points 5 days ago

My condolences. Where is this "competition breeds excellence" outcome that capitalism promised me?

[-] riskable@programming.dev 87 points 6 days ago

Comcast—in the top ten of the shittiest companies of all time that no one wants to have to deal with—is surprised that their "new" deal of, "be slightly less villainous, and expect all our problems to go away" isn't working.

[-] RamRabbit@lemmy.world 77 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

despite ... unlimited data

Unlimited data isn't a selling point. That is shit you always had that Comcast took away, only to realize customers really fucking hate that. Returning to a basic level of service isn't a boon; there is a looming Comcast threat they will fuck you again.

despite price guarantee

It's a 1-year-promo price. Comcast just delays raping your wallet for a year in hopes you will lie back and think of England when the time comes.

[-] Zetta@mander.xyz 19 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I paid $180 a month for unlimited data on cox, but they threatened to terminate my account after I passed 1tb of upload in a month, they were calling and telling me it's a violation of their terms of service. I said I pay for fucking unlimited data, "that doesn't include upload" you scummy little fucks, false fucking marketing in that case because you advertised UNLIMITED DATA.

I lucked out when I bought a house that has quantum fiber, I pay $50 a month for 500/500 and real unlimited. I push 4 - 8 tb of usage per month with about half being upload.

[-] QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing that nets 8tb per month? You should have the right to use as much as you need though.

[-] Zetta@mander.xyz 2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Im pretty into self hosting and have a number of public facing services like 4get and SearXNG, those two don't use that much data. Also host immich for myself and family to replace Google Photos. Some of the bigger data hogs.

Archive warrior - I run a Docker container that constantly scrapes, compresses, and uploads whatever data the internet archive team wants most. I've had it running for a couple years now and they've had me scraping Telegram. That does a couple hundred gigs a month.

I2P Router - The invisible internet project, it's sort of like Tor, but in my opinion more secure and better because it uses garlic routing instead of more centralized servers. Although it's way less popular than Tor and seems most people use it for torrenting. Either way, I recently started hosting a router because governments around the world are cracking down on freedom of speech and censoriship, and increasing their surveillance powers. So I want to support the network and help it grow, this by itself does ~1TB of upload and download a month. Everyone in the world should start pivoting to more secure and decentralized internet solutions like this. Fuck the government.

Linux ISOs torrents - I love Linux, what can I say?

Backup server - I have an off-site Raspberry Pi backup server at my friend's house that I do nightly backups of my important data to. So just depending on how much I've built up since the last backup that can be modest in size.

Otherwise we have a sort of high bandwidth household with video content consumption.

[-] QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

Wow, that's a crazy stack you've got there. Cool stuff. 👍

[-] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 55 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Who knew that spending thirty years treating your customers like garbage would have them bail the moment they have a choice?

Yeah, literally everybody.

The fact that they think that "bundling" products people don't want with products that they do want is a strategy to get MORE customers give you an idea if how disconnected these idiots are.

When you spend this much time fucking your customers the last thing they want is more shit from you. I'll be dead in the ground before I let the people who fuck up my simple Internet billing every month handle my wireless plan and I'll be damned if I pay fucking RENT on a shitty modem and router.

[-] witten@lemmy.world 42 points 5 days ago

Reminder that Comcast is funding Trump's ballroom and also has a contract with ICE.

[-] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 5 days ago

Good. Fuck them. They fucked everyone else long enough.

At one point in 2017 I was paying $60/month for 30 Mbps/5Mbps.

Five. Fucking. Megabits. Up.

[-] unphazed@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

1994, cable lines installed by Adelphia in my area. Soon after, bought by Comcast, top speed - 280mbps for $60 in 2017, then $70 2 years later. NO new lines installed since 1994. 2020 ice storm downs miles and miles of cable and electric, they report "upgraded lines", my limit is increased to 400mbps, still get 280. 3 mo later, price goes to $80. Frontier installed fiber last year, I told them I'm cancelling. Their save offer? 300mbps for $85. My jaw dropped. I wasn't going to stay no matter what, but I felt gaslighted.

[-] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 days ago

I think Crapcast offered me a year of free internet.

I told them to go pound sand. I was lucky enough to get (almost) gigabit fiber for ~$80/month.

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago

Same cost, but 15 and 3 most of the time. We had no other option.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 36 points 6 days ago

Fuck Comcast, it's not even real Unlimited. You have to use their device, which is the most unsecure device in the world AND they still impose bandwidth caps and throttling if you exceed a certain amount in a day or week calling it "Excessive Use".

[-] suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

You can use their modem with your own router. Just switch the modem to bridge mode and then you don't have to deal with it or any of its security issues.

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 28 points 6 days ago

Ditching Comcast is one of the best decisions I think I've ever made.

I went with the T-Mobile home internet for a while, and then we got fiber in the area, so I went and changed to them, but if I can avoid it, I'll never give Comcast another dollar of my money.

[-] Zikeji@programming.dev 6 points 5 days ago

My first apartment had Comcast or DSL. I signed up, a month later I was part of their "experimental" data caps program. During the course of this I had a sales rep call and fell for the pitch. Turns out, he downright committed fraud and made promises that were patently untrue. It took 48 hours of back and forth in various mediums over the course of a month to get the situation resolved.

The solution was to complain on reddit and have an employee give me a one time use code to use Comcast's VIP support center.. Which is ridiculous that it exists in the first place.

I predicated all my subsequent (about 4) moves with "Comcast is not in the area" as a filtering criteria. Fuck Comcast.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Mnem667@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago

Weird. I don't remember having an alt, or making this comment. :) Did the exact same progression, Xfinity to tmobile to fiber gig. Never going back to Xfinity.

[-] ohshittheyknow@lemmynsfw.com 19 points 5 days ago

Maybe take some of that broadband expansion money you took over the last 20 years and upgrade your network.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 25 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I would guess it's not just Comcast. Optimum serves my area and they've basically been begging people to switch back since this area got fiber a few years ago.

Their offers are like $25/mo for 200/10 Mbps and no data caps. But they're not guaranteeing the price. Seems like they're going after the lower end of the market.

I basically say "boo hoo". This is what actual competition looks like. Cable companies have sat on their ass and milked their infrastructure for decades (only updating the headend equipment to keep up).

Optimum cold called me once and I flat out told them if they wanted me back, they need to run fiber to my home, give me the same symmetrical speed I have now, for at least $10 less than I'm paying my fiber provider, and lock that price for at least 5 years. The rep basically kinda sighed, so I guess they've heard that response from more than just me.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] CH3DD4R_G0BL1N@sh.itjust.works 12 points 5 days ago

Imagine how fast this decline would have been if not for all the collusion between providers. I was always surrounded by better options that just didn’t quite serve my area any time I was forced to use these twats.

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago

Fiber isn't the problem. I would move to DSL over Comcast.

Their customer service is garbage. Their service is overpriced. They bundle nonsense and are always pushing TV. They're a dying breed.

[-] tonytins@pawb.social 15 points 6 days ago
[-] nek0d3r@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 5 days ago

I desperately need a competitor to come in. They're trying to raise my bill 50% right now and there's not a single other broadband service at my address.

[-] ToTheGraveMyLove@sh.itjust.works 13 points 6 days ago

Count me among those lost customers. I had them for years but they are an absolute nightmare so last year I finally gave up and just cancelled my internet outright. Unfortunately fiber isn't an option where I live. I'm looking at wireless right now, but atm I don't have internet. Not having internet is preferable to dealing with Comcast's bullshit tho.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] 4grams@awful.systems 8 points 5 days ago

They would lose me, if I had an alternative. In my neighborhood it’s cable or 1mbps DSL. Neighborhoods across the street to the east and west both have nice and cheap fiber but my neighborhood is older than one and less affluent than the other.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

seems like the perfect opportunity to resell their fiber as your own ISP. then in 6-8 months sell your company to them and make a profit large enough to move because your neighbors are gonna be pissed.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] mesamunefire@piefed.social 10 points 5 days ago

I dont like my ISP but it does let me use whatever ports I want for self hosting. Comcast does not without extra fees and even then its very expensive.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

I ditched cable TV over a decade ago for a simple antenna (and wrote a notable Reddit post on the antenna while I was at it). That was done because I was tired of my wallet being raped each month, because I had to buy a higher bundle to get the channels I wanted. I was stuck with cable internet for a number of years afterwards, as it was the only option in my area. Then T-Mobile offered up 5G based internet in my area at a low price. That was around 6 years ago and I haven't looked back.

The cable companies sat on their laurels while the world moved on. They are now shocked that their terrible offerings for terrible prices are falling to real competition. Sure, I fully expect the new carriers to do everything in their power to enshitify their service offerings. That's the nature of business/ But, with the market open to competition, there is now a real opportunity for us customers to shop around and get a less shitty experience. Broadband internet is a commodity and is completely fungible. Prices should be falling and it was only rent seeking rules keeping the prices up.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

Tipping point. Their reputation is complete trash. People only subscribe to Comcast as a last resort.

[-] TacoEvent@lemmy.zip 7 points 5 days ago

I actually switched to Comcast recently. The only fiber option we have is AT&T and they have been literally adding $5 to our monthly bill every few months or so. What started as an $80/mo deal became $105/mo for no apparent reason.

Comcast was offering asymmetrical 1 gigabit with a 5 year lock at $65/mo. Install came out the next day and it’s been fine. I’m far more likely to hit 1000mbps actual on Comcast than when I had ATT. But on the flip side the service has a tendency to blip every now and then. No major packet loss or anything just the occasional slowness.

Both companies can go to hell the moment my city introduces municipal fiber. But that’s highly unlikely.

[-] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago

It totally depends on the competition. I lived in one neighborhood where Comcast was $100 a month for Fiber and had a data cap that I went over regularly. No unlimited option and no other providers in that neighborhood.

Then I lived in an apartment in the same city. The apartment had Google Fiber, ATT, Comcast, and whatever else I don’t remember. ATT was $50/mo with no data cap.

I use Google Fiber where I live now.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] SillyDude@lemmy.zip 7 points 5 days ago

I was paying like $25 for decent speeds and 1tb cap. I was happy. Then randomly it goes up to over $80. Guess my "promo" ran out. Called thinking it was an error but fully canceled instead. They offered the same service but for only $60. Or maybe they can find a promo and itll only be $50. No, well maybe this promo could be $40 and well give you a free phone. Jesus Christ no, fuck off.

[-] tyler@programming.dev 6 points 6 days ago

We switched to symmetrical gigabit the moment it was available, in fact we were one of the first in the state. I’m never going back. In 5 years we’ve only had to call for help once and they didn’t need to come out to do anything. They were able to fix the issue over the phone in about 5-10 minutes. The rest of the time the internet just fucking works.

Amazing how offering a working product gets you customers.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] ghostlychonk@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

We switched to fiber as soon as it was available in our neighborhood. The price combined with Xfinity service having a habit of going down multiple hours every couple of weeks were both major factors.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

as it leans harder into wireless bundling and other business lines like Peacock and theme parks

Theme parks.

"Kids, pile into the van, we're going to Comcast World!"

I'm sure they own lots of IP from their various acquisitions. But, fundamentally they're a cable company.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
378 points (98.7% liked)

Technology

80478 readers
3899 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS