- Today, Comcast reported 167,000 broadband losses during the quarter
- It’s wireless MVNO reported 448,000 net line additions
- The company's CFO talked about the competitive threat from SpaceX's Starlink
Comcast today held its Q2 2026 earnings call with investors — its first earnings since it announced it was splitting the company into two, separating its media business from its connectivity business.
But perhaps the most interesting part of today’s call related to questions from analysts about the threat from low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite operators, especially SpaceX’s Starlink.
Comcast Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong said that currently, the company is not seeing Starlink as a meaningful competitor in its markets. “But we don't take any comfort in that,” said Armstrong. “We're not complacent. We fully expect to see them more as a competitor over time.”
He noted that Starlink is going to have “significant capacity increases in the coming years," likely referring to the fact that Starlink has applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy its new Gen3 broadband constellation of up to 100,000 LEO satellites.
“We particularly expect to see them more in rural and underserved areas,” Armstrong said. “I think that's a core target market for them, and I think that's realistic that we're going to see them as more of a competitor in those markets.”
Comcast is getting hit with new competition not only from satellite, but also from fiber and especially from fixed wireless access (FWA). It’s been accused of being complacent about FWA until it really started to eat into Comcast’s subscriber numbers. When FWA first emerged as a threat several years ago, Comcast executives scoffed at it on earnings calls, saying that it had limited capacity. But recently that narrative has changed, and Comcast executives now talk about the FWA competitive threat.
Armstrong admitted that FWA operators saw an opening due to Comcast’s reputation for bad customer service. He said: “Customer service hasn't been a strong suit of ours.” But he said the company was aggressively working on that.
In terms of the competitive threat from satellite, Armstrong seemed to have more questions than answers. “So the question is how do we position for that? How do we address any vulnerabilities that we have from a competitive standpoint?” he asked.
He did say that having a wire into the home provides superior connectivity. “Our path on that wire is a multi-gig symmetrical path. Our network is an active network all the way into the home. In an AI-driven world, having active components from headend, to node, to amps, all the way into customer premise equipment, we actually think will be a big advantage in the long term. So, we're very comfortable with where we are at network.”
In summary, Armstrong said, “I would step back and say whether it's fixed wireless, fiber, satellite, all these are in a sort of a newish competitive category. The priority for us is the same, and that's how do you create an experience sort of holistically across network, product and customer service that best insulates you.”
Q2 numbers and the separation into 2 companies
Today, Comcast reported 167,000 broadband losses during the quarter. This compares to 65,000 broadband losses in Q1. Broadband average revenue per user (ARPU) declined 3.8% in Q2.
Its wireless MVNO fared better. It reported 448,000 net line additions, during the quarter, ending with 10.2 million total lines, representing 17% penetration of its domestic, residential broadband customer base, and 7% penetration of the total wireless line opportunity in its footprint. The company is offloading about 90% of its wireless traffic through other means such as Wi-Fi and CBRS offload.
BNP Paribas Equity Research Senior Analyst Sam McHugh wrote, “We don’t see these earnings as particularly needle moving.”
In terms of the separation into two companies, Brian Roberts, co-CEO of Comcast Corporation, said that since the company announced the separation about three weeks ago, “we've talked with our key constituencies, employees at every level, and most of our key partners, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. I feel more positive and energized today than I was on the day we announced it.”
The company wants to complete the separation in approximately one year.
More stories about Comcast:
Comcast spins off media biz but keeps cable and broadband
Comcast’s Q1 2026 broadband losses were ‘less bad’ than expected