2023 in review: Cable's wireless growth

With broadband subscriber growth hitting a wall, mobile was a huge story for the cable industry in 2023 – at least for Comcast and Charter Communications.

Charter added a whopping 1.92 million mobile lines through the first nine months of the year, giving it a grand total of 7.22 million. Part of those gains come from Charter's Spectrum One promotion, and there are indications that many of the customers who got a free mobile line for a year will stick around once those lines convert to pay.

Comcast's mobile growth was solid but far less aggressive as the operator added 965,000, extending its grand total to 6.27 million.

The rest of the industry hasn't enjoyed quite the same success in mobile. Altice USA is starting to make some progress as it steps up its efforts on mobile, but WideOpenWest still has yet to reveal any mobile line figures since launching its offering in mid-2022.

Hundreds of small and midsized cable ops that are members of The National Content & Technology Cooperative have a mobile option, thanks to the NCTC's deals with AT&T and Reach. But there's not much to show for it yet with respect to commercial deployments. However, Allo, an NCTC member, plans to launch a mobile offering in the first quarter of 2024. Cable One, another NCTC member, is staying on the sidelines.

So, when looking at cable's mobile efforts in the aggregate, it's been a mixed bag. But Comcast and Charter, which are also starting to deploy CBRS spectrum to keep MVNO costs down, are still presenting a path for others to follow.

Here's a roundup of this year's Light Reading stories focused on cable's biggest wireless and mobile moves and results.