US Mobile Market Update – Q2 2023

Summary of US Mobile Market Q2 2023

After the best year in history, 2023 had a tough act to follow. One of the big questions in front of the industry was – will the growth taper off and what will be the implications?

After the slowdown in Q1, Q2 revenue inched up and stayed above the $50B mark for the 6th straight quarter. Net-adds reversed the downturn by growing 17%.

China Mobile maintained its valuation pole position followed by Comcast and T-Mobile.

T-Mobile has been itching to make this milestone – it finally bested its two rivals in churn for the first time.

AT&T had its sixth straight 5M+ net-adds quarter with Connected devices contributing to the bulk of its growth. T-Mobile added more postpaid net-adds than AT&T and Verizon combined. T-Mobile also dominated postpaid phone net-adds.

Fixed wireless continues to be the bright star for 5G in the US. With almost 6M subs, the mobile operators are adding 90% of the broadband subs in the US. T-Mobile again added more broadband customers than the rest of the major players combined.

For the third straight time, Charter went past Comcast in total mobile subs with cable provider total reaching almost 12M mobile subs. The cable companies have added more mobile subs than AT&T and Verizon combined in the last 4 out of 5 quarters. US Cellular and Dish continue to hemorrhage customers. Dish has lost almost a quarter of their customers since the start of their wireless business. US Cellular is looking to sell the business.

There was consequential movement in adjacent areas as we had predicted – fixed wireless, MEC, private networks, and new applications and services. T-Mobile is using its spectrum advantage to go after the low-hanging fruit of fixed wireless in certain markets while Verizon made investments in the MEC and private networks space. AT&T also continues to invest in the enterprise segment.

US picked up pace on the 5G front and kept its lead with China in percentage penetration. US has also outpaced China in 5G revenue by a significant margin. However, China has made significant strides in the 5G enterprise segment. So, the “5G race” is in the eye of the beholder, depending on the dimension of comparison, you can find a different winner.

Topics covered in the research update.

  • Q2 2023 US Mobile Market Highlights
  • 1H 2023: State of the industry
  • Cable Cos overtake US Cellular and Dish
  • Is FWA Cooling off?
  • Tug of War: Broadband vs. Mobile
  • More Consolidation Looms
  • Opex: The Silent Killer
  • 5G and 4th Wave
  • US wireless market: Tier-2 Competition
  • Getting 6G Right
  • Global 5G Race Update
  • What to Expect in the Coming Months?
  • US Wireless Market Q2 2023 Analysis
    • Service Revenues
    • ARPU
    • Subscribers
    • Competition
    • 5G Progress
    • Fixed Wireless Progress
    • 4th Wave Progress
    • Connected Devices
    • Handsets

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