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.
Tipping point. Their reputation is complete trash. People only subscribe to Comcast as a last resort.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Maybe take some of that broadband expansion money you took over the last 20 years and upgrade your network.
As a NYer: Is that what’s supposed to happen?
Reminder that Comcast is funding Trump’s ballroom and also has a contract with ICE.
I’m so glad I live someplace with competition. Google fiber is the best internet I’ve ever had. It actually functions like the advertisements for Comcast used to claim but for less cost. Fuck Comcast
Google is like way more evil than Comcast though.
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.
I would love to become one of these lost customers.
See? Even friends of satan think comcast is too evil.
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.
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.
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.
I used to port forward, but I have stopped doing it. I don’t want to have open ports on the same IP that I use for internet browsing.
I have my local server connected, via WireGuard, to a cheap nearby VPS. All my services are exposed from that VPS.
This configuration also offers full portability to my home server, allowing me to switch to any ISP, or even move to mobile data, if I have to.
For applications that require even lower latency, like remote gaming, I use Tailscale, which can traverse the NATs and create direct connections between the devices.
I just have a firewall and call it a day. No more extra services, no extra money, and as long as 80/443 are good externally and a couple of others im good. Its a small server, I dont even have ssh open outside the network.
I don’t even bother with local ports anymore. It’s just too much hassle when I switch providers, email services all seem to universally sinkhole anything originating from a residential IP even if I am able to convince them to unblock 25/TCP, and I refuse to pay extra for a static IP or upsell to business class at a massive price increase.
My ISP, while otherwise fine, still has not rolled out IPv6 yet and the DHCPv4 lease duration is short and will randomly assign a different IP rather than renewing the lease on the existing one. I don’t like relying on dynamic DNS or relying on running a daemon to update my public DNS records when my public IP changes. Been there, done that, and bought a crappy t-shirt at the gift shop.
I’ve had a VPS for close to 10 years now that is my main frontend and, through some VPN and routing trickery, allows me to have my email server on-prem but use the VPS for all inbound and outbound communication. A side effect benefit of this setup is I can run my email server from literally anywhere and from anything with an internet connection. I’ve got a copy of my email stack on a Pi Zero clone that stays in sync with my main one. During long power outages, I can start that up and run it from a hotspot with a power bank running it for almost 2 days (or indefinitely when I’m also charging the power bank from a solar panel lol).
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.
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.
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.
My condolences. Where is this “competition breeds excellence” outcome that capitalism promised me?
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.
Customer service matters assholes
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”.
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.
