Comcast Warns of Greater Broadband Losses Resulting from Robust Competitors and Hurricane Hit

(Reuters) – U.S. telecommunications big Comcast forecast on Monday that fourth-quarter broadband subscriber losses would exceed Wall Avenue estimates, damage by robust competitors from wi-fi service suppliers and the affect of two hurricanes that shook Florida.

The corporate's shares fell 8.3%. Its gloomy forecast additionally despatched shares of rival Constitution Communications down 6.5%.

Comcast expects broadband subscriber losses to complete simply over 100,000 within the remaining three months of 2024, Dave Watson, Comcast Cable president and CEO, mentioned on the convention UBS World Media and Communications.

Analysts had anticipated a lack of 64,400 subscribers within the quarter, in line with knowledge from analysis agency Seen Alpha.

Comcast mentioned about 10,000 broadband connection losses are linked to Hurricanes Milton and Helene that made landfall in Florida two weeks aside, disrupting companies.

The corporate beforehand mentioned the potential affect could possibly be a lot smaller than that of Hurricane Ian in 2022, which led to the lack of 26,000 broadband prospects within the fourth quarter of this yr.

“Competitors stays intense, this has not modified and has been pretty constant all year long, significantly within the extra worth acutely aware section of the market,” Watson mentioned.

Comcast has misplaced subscribers to wi-fi suppliers reminiscent of AT&T Verizon and T-Cellular, which attracted prospects with customizable and reasonably priced offers.

Comcast was additionally affected by the top of the federal Inexpensive Connectivity Program (ACP), which sponsored Web entry for low-income households in the US.

This resulted in a lack of 87,000 broadband prospects for Comcast within the third quarter. Excluding the affect of ACP, the corporate's broadband community noticed a internet enhance of 9,000 folks throughout this era.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bangalore; modifying by Arun Koyyur and Maju Samuel)