Fixed Wireless Drives Broadband Growth: Report

Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) specializes in Research and analysis in the media, entertainment, and broadband sectors.

By utilizing LRG’s industry tracking, Research, and consumer surveys, companies can gain a deeper insight into the market’s state, the possible impact and uptake of new products and services, and existing market circumstances.

According to Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG), the largest cable and wireline phone providers and fixed wireless services in the United States, which account for roughly 96% of the market, added roughly 3,520,000 net additional broadband Internet users in 2023.

It is comparable to a pro forma gain of 3,530,000 subscribers in 2022.

Based on recent data regarding broadband subscriber growth, Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) reports that fixed wireless is once again capturing the vast majority of net new broadband subscribers.

In 2023, fixed wireless services comprised 104% of the total net broadband additions, up from 20% and 90% of net adds in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

In 2023, T-Mobile and Verizon gained over 3.7 million subscribers to their fixed wireless/5G home Internet services, up from roughly 3.2 million net adds in 2022.

While Verizon added 1.7 million fixed wireless subscribers, T-Mobile added 2.1 million.

About 114.7 million people use top broadband providers; the top cable firms have 76.1 million broadband users, the top wireline phone companies have over 30.7 million users (not counting fixed wireless subscribers), and the top fixed wireless services have over 7.8 million users.

In 2023, the top cable companies lost over 65,000 subscribers, compared to roughly 530,000 net adds the year before.

In contrast to their 180,000 net losses in 2022, the top wireline phone companies lost roughly 80,000 broadband subscribers last year.

Bruce Leichtman, president and chief analyst of Leichtman Research Group, Inc., stated that “top broadband providers added about 3.5 million subscribers in 2023, similar to the number of broadband adds in 2022.”

He added, “Over the past four years, top providers added about 15.9 million broadband subscribers, compared to about 10.2 million net broadband adds in the prior four (pre-pandemic) years.”