U.S. wireless carriers and broadband-internet providers are fighting to win customers from each other, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Wireless carriers exploited the excess capacity on next-generation networks to win traditional broadband-internet users, while cable companies retaliated with new and cheaper cellphone plans.
The competition, in several instances, helped consumers to beat inflation.
The cost of internet service rose by 1.7 percent in July year-on-year. The consumer-price index rose 8.5 percent in July, WSJ wrote.
The 5G cellular networks have helped carriers T-Mobile US Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. clock 2.2 million wireless-internet customers through June, often at traditional broadband providers’ expense.
The wireless threat contributed to the cable industry’s worst quarter in years. Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications, Inc. lost residential customers in the most recent quarter for the first time, after multiple quarters of growth earlier in the pandemic….