Spectrum, operated by Charter Communications, has received a tough wake-up call from Wall Street as its internet customers continue to cancel their service in significant numbers. In 2025, Spectrum lost more than 400,000 internet customers. That trend continued, with the company losing another 120,000 in the first quarter of this year and 172,000 in the second.
The losses come amid continued price increases for the company's internet services. Most recently, in July, Spectrum increased prices for multiple internet plans by $10. "Competition for new customers from expanded competitive footprint remains high," Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said on an earnings call in July.
The company is facing pressure from fixed-wireless and fiber internet competition, consumers switching to mobile broadband, lower sales among low-income households, and more aggressive promotions from key rivals. Amid these challenges, Charter Communications' stock has been downgraded by Wolfe Research, according to an analyst note reported by Seeking Alpha. The firm downgraded the stock's rating from neutral (meaning an analyst expects the stock's performance to match the broader market) to underperform, indicating the stock is expected to perform worse than its competitors.
Wolfe Research has set a $118 stock price target for Charter, which is 19% below the stock's closing price on Sept. 11. In the analyst note, Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino emphasized that the growth of satellite internet is becoming a rising problem for traditional broadband providers. Related: Spectrum makes significant decision as customer losses mount "DSL's (digital subscriber line) demise coincides with satellite's rise," said Supino.
He said that SpaceX's Starlink, which launched satellite internet service in 2020, is intensifying broadband competition by offering higher downlink speeds, which is how fast a device receives data from the internet. "A single Starlink launch represents ~22x more downlink capacity… and while Starlink currently prices above market, falling unit costs and ramping capacity portend significant price cuts," he said. So far this year, Starlink has garnered more than 12 million global high-speed internet customers, according to a company post on X (the former Twitter).
It is expected to become an even greater threat as Starlink upgrades its network with new V3 satellites, designed to deliver faster speeds, lower latency, and greater data capacity to customers. In addition to downgrading Charter's stock, Wolfe Research also adjusted its outlook for Comcast, which is also seeing heavy customer losses in its Xfinity internet business. While the firm maintained its "Peer Perform" rating on Comcast's stock, which suggests it will perform at the same level as its direct competitors, it now expects the company to face higher customer losses.
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