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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wow, that’s a crazy stack you’ve got there. Cool stuff. 👍
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.
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.
Reminder that Comcast is funding Trump’s ballroom and also has a contract with ICE.
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.
Long term FAFO, for them. They burned a customer for life, with me, when they laid data caps down.
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.
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.
An apartment I used to have had cable as the only option, and it was incredibly expensive, and they thought, since it was the only option available, that they could charge whatever they wanted and get away with it. And when I was using T-Mobile Home Internet in that apartment, I was getting a cheaper price and higher speeds than everybody else in the building.
Fixed wireless really does have a way of humbling these stupid legacy providers.
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.
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.
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?
Haha. Yeah Charter is good at moving that goalpost aren’t they?
finally got fiber and price hasn’t changed in 5 years. Comcast/xfinity annual beg for better price. felt good to cancel
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.
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.
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.
I’m looking at wireless right now
The 5G home internet hookups from TMobile and Verizon are surprisingly good. In many places, they are what are competing with Comcast and drawing away customers. I would start with whichever you have the better signal with in your area.
That’s good to hear, because its looking like I’ll probably end up with one of those two! Thanks for the feedback.
