Comcast added 322,000 wireless subscribers during the second quarter of 2024, with its wireless customer lines up 20% compared to the same time last year and reaching a wireless customer base of 7.2 million.
The cable MSO saw its domestic broadband revenues grow 3% compared to the same time last year, to $6.6 billion for the quarter. Comcast added more than 300,000 homes and businesses passed by its wireline network in the second quarter, and said it plans to continue its pace of expanding its footprint to the tune of approximately 1.2 million locations per year. Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said on the company’s quarterly call with investors that fiber is Comcast’s “true long-term competitor.”
In terms of the amount of data traffic on its network, Cavanagh said that Comcast saw double-digit growth during the second quarter and that Comcast’s broadband-only households were consuming more than 700 GB of data per month. He added that about 70% of Comcast’s residential broadband subscribers were subscribed to service tiers of 500 Mbps or faster, and one-third were getting a gigabit or more. Streaming and entertainment accounted for nearly 70% of network traffic, he added.
He also said that 90% of Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile traffic traverses Comcast’s Wi-Fi network. Overall, Cavanagh added, the company is “very pleased with the momentum we saw in wireless this quarter.” He said that the company’s new offers are resulting in higher rates of multiple-line mobile subscriptions and that it plans to soon make new mobile offers tied to the Paris Olympics, which begin this week.
CFO Jason Armstrong said on the call that wireless penetration of Comcast’s domestic residential broadband customer base is 12%.
Comcast reduced its overall capital expenditures, with its Connectivity and Platforms’ segment’s capex spending down nearly 13% year-on-year to $1.9 billion. Comcast said that this was due to lower spending on customer premise equipment and scalable infrastructure.
Consolidated company revenues were down 2.7% to $29.7 billion. Within that, however, Comcast saw revenue growth in residential connectivity of 6%, driven by 3% growth in domestic broadband revenues and 17% growth in domestic wireless revenues. Business services connectivity revenues were also up 6%.
Armstrong said on the call that the broadband subscriber environment is “intensely competitive,” which along with a typical second-quarter slow-down meant 120,000 in customer losses on the broadband side. Total domestic video customer net losses were 419,000.
Executives said that they do expect to see customer losses related to the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program, with the bulk of those anticipated to happen in the third quarter of this year.
The company also made $2.2 billion in share repurchases and $1.2 billion in dividend payments.
