The largest broadband providers in the United States gained a lot of subscribers during the first quarter of 2023, but almost all the adds went to fixed wireless access, according to Leichtman Research Group (LRG).

The providers that LRG tracks represent about 96% of the broadband market. These providers added approximately 960,000 net subscribers during the quarter. That was 125,000 less than the approximately 1,085,000 added during the first quarter of 2022. The net additions in this year’s first quarter were 89% of the year ago quarter.

Overall, these companies have about 112 million subscribers, with the cable companies (76.2 million) leading the wireline phone companies (30.8 million) and fixed wireless service providers (5 million). But fixed wireless providers are making big gains against the other providers.

“Top broadband providers added nearly one million subscribers in 1Q 2023, with fixed wireless services accounting for 95% of the quarterly net adds,” Bruce Leichtman, LRG’s president and principal analyst said in a press release.

Other takeaways from the report:

• The top cable companies’ progress slowed. They added about 65,000 subscribers during the first quarter of 2023, far less than the approximate 485,000 net adds in the first quarter of 2022.
• The top wireline phone companies lost about 20,000 total broadband subscribers in the more recent first quarter, compared to about 65,000 net adds in the first quarter of 2022.
• The wireline telcos had about 500,000 net fiber additions during the first quarter of 2023, while losing about 520,000 non-fiber net customers.
• Fixed wireless/5G home Internet services from T-Mobile and Verizon added about 915,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2023. They had about 530,000 net adds in the first quarter of 2022.