In its first wave, Cord Cutting 1.0 marked a significant shift away from traditional cable TV subscriptions. Households opted for streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube TV, severing their ties with legacy providers in pursuit of flexible, lower-cost entertainment. This phase reshaped how audiences consumed media—but it left one major dependency in place: fixed broadband.
Now, Cord Cutting 2.0 has launched with unprecedented momentum. It goes beyond ditching cable TV; consumers are increasingly abandoning wired internet services altogether in favor of wireless, high-speed 5G home broadband. The latest numbers reveal the magnitude of this trend. In Q1 2024, AT&T and T-Mobile together added 776,000 new 5G home internet users, continuing a steep upward trajectory that has redefined what it means to be connected at home.
Several factors have accelerated this adoption. Reliable 5G coverage has expanded across urban, suburban, and even rural areas. Pricing models offer fixed wireless access (FWA) for as low as $50 per month with no contracts or hidden fees. Speeds regularly reach and sometimes exceed 300 Mbps, rivalling cable and fiber for non-gaming use cases. Fast rollout, competitive bundling, and user-friendly installation have combined into a perfect storm—driving wireless broadband into the mainstream.
The pivot from coaxial cable to streaming platforms has become unmistakable. Over the past decade, millions of households have relinquished traditional TV packages. Instead of bundled channels with rigid viewing schedules, consumers now opt for on-demand flexibility from services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+. According to Nielsen’s 2023 “Gauge” report, streaming commanded 38.7% of total TV usage in July 2023, surpassing cable at 29.6%. This milestone reflects a fundamental behavioral shift in how Americans consume content.
Households now treat streaming services not as supplements but as the primary source of entertainment. Platforms continue to differentiate through original content, personalization algorithms, and lower pricing tiers, often at the expense of traditional networks. Apple TV+ alone doubled its subscriber base between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023, and FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) platforms like Pluto TV and Tubi have surged in popularity, offering curated channel experiences without a subscription.
Cable’s hold on the home entertainment market has weakened significantly. In 2017, about 77% of U.S. households had a pay-TV subscription. As of early 2024, that number has dropped below 50%, based on data from Leichtman Research Group. The cost of traditional pay-TV — averaging over $100/month — plays a major role, especially as consumers grow more comfortable assembling custom bundles using lower-cost streaming services.
Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Google TV have transformed user interfaces, making it easier than ever to choose from hundreds of digital alternatives. Consumers control everything — when to watch, what to watch, and how much to pay. This abundance has birthed a new kind of user behavior: platform hopping based on content availability, limited-series engagement, and even seasonal subscriptions. The model thrives because it aligns fully with user priorities: personalization, immediacy, and control.
5G isn’t just powering smartphones anymore. It’s quietly becoming a primary broadband option in millions of American homes. No coaxial cables. No digging trenches. No waiting weeks for installation. With small, self-installable routers delivered to doorsteps, users plug in their 5G gateway—and just like that, the household is online.
The shift is measurable. As of Q1 2024, AT&T and T-Mobile collectively surged by 776,000 new 5G home internet users, an unmistakable signal that wireless broadband isn’t a fringe experiment—it’s real, scalable, and preferred.
Three factors are shaping this rapid adoption: speed, access, and cost.
Gone are the days of mandatory technician visits and wall-mounted modems. 5G routers, powered by Qualcomm, MediaTek, and other chipset providers, ship ready to install. Many models include built-in SIMs and GPS for plug-and-play activation. This reduces onboarding time to minutes rather than days.
Portability underscores the appeal: users can move residences—or even travel in RVs—and bring their internet connection with them. That flexibility introduces a new paradigm where the home network travels with the consumer, not the cable company.
Modern American households demand versatility in connectivity. Between remote work, smart home systems, 4K streaming, and gaming, traditional broadband must now compete with a service that handles all of it wirelessly. 5G home internet meets that demand without tethering the customer to inflexible legacy infrastructure.
Consider a four-person household: two remote workers, a gamer, and a streaming-heavy teenager. With bandwidth-hungry habits, they would historically be locked into a fiber or cable plan. Now, mid-band 5G—boosted by technologies like beamforming and network slicing—provides a viable alternative without sacrificing performance.
The numbers confirm it: when 776,000 homes switch in just one quarter, the technology isn't catching on—it’s becoming standard.
AT&T continues to extend its reach in the fixed wireless access (FWA) market by scaling its 5G home internet services across several U.S. regions. The company offers a streamlined plan structure under its Internet Air product, targeting households in areas underserved by traditional broadband. This service provides average download speeds ranging between 40 Mbps to 140 Mbps, depending on tower proximity and network congestion.
In early 2024, AT&T introduced enhanced bundling options that combine its wireless mobile offerings with home internet. Consumers who subscribe to both AT&T Unlimited Premium mobile and Internet Air receive discounts and seamless integration with streaming perks through partnerships with HBO Max and Netflix, increasing average customer value and reducing churn.
T-Mobile, meanwhile, has emerged as the fastest-growing 5G home internet provider in the U.S., adding over 500,000 new FWA subscribers in Q1 2024 alone. As of mid-2024, T-Mobile serves more than 5 million households with 5G home internet—up from just 1 million two years ago.
This surge stems from T-Mobile’s aggressive geographic build-out. By leveraging its massive 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum, the company expanded coverage into rural counties in over 40 states, where cable and fiber providers maintain limited infrastructure. The network delivers typical download speeds of 72 Mbps to 245 Mbps, with peak speeds exceeding 300 Mbps in areas with strong signal quality.
As both AT&T and T-Mobile ramp up fixed wireless internet strategies, the traditional broadband market faces increasing fragmentation. Internal competition between these telecom giants accelerates innovation—forcing rapid upgrades to network infrastructure and customer-facing products. Each carrier seeks to undercut cable incumbents not only on price, but on user experience.
The result? Existing broadband providers, including Comcast and Charter, now contend with national wireless operators capable of reaching millions of new customers outside conventional cable footprints. This sharpens the battle for subscribers and ignites a pricing war that’s reshaping broadband economics across the country.
Legacy broadband relies on coaxial cables, fiber, or DSL lines to reach homes. These systems demand substantial physical infrastructure—trenches, poles, neighborhood nodes—and often lead to higher prices due to monopoly-style market control. Major cable providers like Comcast and Charter Communications have operated with limited competition across many regions, resulting in slower innovation cycles.
In contrast, 5G home internet bypasses traditional underground and aerial installations. Providers like T-Mobile and AT&T leverage their existing nationwide wireless networks, deploying fixed wireless access (FWA) solutions using 5G radios. This approach minimizes infrastructure costs and accelerates rollout times dramatically. Rural and underserved areas, long ignored by fiber-optic deployments, are now receiving internet solutions through cell towers and small cells without ground-level construction.
Consumers are embracing home internet services that break conventional barriers. When T-Mobile and Verizon launched their 5G Home Internet products in 2021, early adopters praised the month-to-month flexibility and absence of installation or equipment rental fees. According to OpenSignal data from early 2024, over 80% of FWA users reported satisfaction with the ease of setup compared to traditional wired services.
No more technician visits. No waiting for line activation. Users receive a self-install kit, plug it in, and within minutes have a high-speed, low-latency internet connection. These subscription models generally ship pre-configured Wi-Fi gateways that act as both modem and router. Customers avoid additional hardware purchases and ongoing rental charges, which average $10-$15 per month with legacy broadband providers.
As consumer preference tilts toward streamlined, contract-free services, traditional broadband's model shows signs of strain. The U.S. saw over 1.9 million fixed wireless access net additions in 2023 alone, according to Leichtman Research Group. Meanwhile, fixed cable broadband saw a net loss for the second consecutive year. The market is shifting—not gradually, but at a scale measured in millions of households.
The numbers speak clearly. As of Q3 2023, traditional pay-TV providers—cable, satellite, and telecom—lost a combined 1.73 million subscribers, according to Leichtman Research Group. This continues a sharp downward trajectory that began in the mid-2010s but has accelerated with the rise of wireless home internet solutions like those offered by AT&T and T-Mobile. In early 2024, the MediaTech Index reported that fewer than 50% of U.S. households now subscribe to cable television—a milestone that cements the dominance of OTT (over-the-top) and streaming alternatives.
Cost dynamics play a decisive role in what’s unfolding. A typical cable bundle in the U.S. now exceeds $217 per month, combining TV, internet, and phone services, per a 2023 consumer pricing review by DecisionData.org. In contrast, consumers building a streaming ecosystem with Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and a live TV service like YouTube TV will generally pay $80 to $120 monthly. By shifting to à la carte platforms, households reduce recurring expenses while gaining agility in content management, avoiding long-term contracts and hidden fees.
Viewers have shifted allegiance. Instead of flipping through bundled channel lineups via coaxial cable, they launch dedicated apps for their favorite content. Whether it's streaming the NFL on Paramount+ or binge-watching limited series on Max, access now flows through user-curated interfaces. Smart TVs, casting devices, and streaming sticks optimize the experience, making channel surfing feel increasingly obsolete. The convenience of simultaneous access across phone, tablet, and TV screens only widens the gap between streaming platforms and cable boxes.
Timing amplifies impact. Each fall, the return of marquee sports leagues triggers subscription spikes across platforms like Amazon Prime (for Thursday Night Football) or ESPN+. Meanwhile, holiday sales on smart TVs and streaming hardware introduce new households to non-cable ecosystems. Black Friday 2023 saw record-low prices on 4K TVs bundled with free trials to various streaming services, thus reinforcing consumer migration. Streaming platforms also capitalize on premiere seasons, targeting new subscribers with exclusive debuts and binge-friendly scheduling.
Everything points in a single direction: traditional cable TV is not just declining—it’s being replaced in real time.
As 5G home internet adoption accelerates, the competitive landscape between AT&T and T-Mobile continues to intensify. T-Mobile has taken an aggressive approach, adding 405,000 High-Speed Internet customers in Q1 2024 alone, according to its quarterly results. AT&T, aiming to catch up, added 371,000 5G internet users during the same period. Combined, they’ve surged with 776,000 new subscribers, reshaping the dynamics of home connectivity.
The companies take different strategic routes. T-Mobile relies heavily on its broad mid-band 5G coverage, entering underserved markets with persuasive pricing and no-contract simplicity. AT&T leans on its fiber infrastructure in urban zones, while extending 5G fixed wireless to suburban and rural spaces. The result isn’t just a race for scale—it’s a shifting of priorities toward customer-centric agility.
Legacy broadband providers like Comcast (Xfinity) and Charter (Spectrum) are losing ground. In the first quarter of 2024, Comcast lost 487,000 video customers and 65,000 broadband users; Charter dropped 241,000 video subscribers and saw stagnating growth in broadband signups. Their grip on the market weakens as wireless carriers deliver comparable speeds with greater simplicity and mobility.
The disruption strikes deepest in areas where cable monopolies once seemed untouchable. Locations dependent on coaxial infrastructure now face new choices. Consumers increasingly pivot away from bundles and contracts, preferring flat-rate models and all-digital experiences offered by AT&T and T-Mobile.
Real-world experience reinforces the shift. In the 2023 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Telecommunications Report, traditional ISPs like Comcast scored 66/100, while AT&T and T-Mobile's home internet services exceeded 70/100 in customer satisfaction.
Bundling has morphed from cable-channel packages to seamless digital ecosystems. AT&T offers integrated plans that combine fiber or 5G home internet with HBO Max access and wireless mobile service. T-Mobile counters with Go5G plans, layering in Netflix and Apple TV+ subscriptions alongside prioritized data at home and on the go.
This hybrid bundling empowers subscribers to customize their connection stack. Rather than paying for hundreds of unwatched channels, new users build streamlined packages blending connectivity, mobility, and on-demand platforms. The experience feels personal and flexible—smartphones, homes, and TVs all synced within one ecosystem.
Competition is no longer about download speeds alone; it’s about who can orchestrate the most intuitive and engaging customer journey. And that battle favors those moving at 5G speeds.
Strong, uninterrupted signal distribution no longer depends on close proximity to a single router. Wi-Fi 6-enabled routers, now standard in newer hardware, offer up to 9.6 Gbps of theoretical speed and dramatically improved efficiency in device-dense environments. Mesh networks expand this power across the home, eliminating dead zones and maintaining stable performance even with dozens of connected devices — ideal for streaming 4K content, gaming, and virtual meetings running simultaneously.
With 26.7% of U.S. households reporting remote work in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, the home internet connection has become the digital backbone of daily productivity. Parents balancing virtual learning environments also prioritize low-latency access and bandwidth capacity. This shift informs purchasing patterns, driving increased demand for higher-speed plans with responsive upload capability — a space where 5G home internet finds a strong foothold.
Intelligent homes packed with always-on devices — from Alexa and Siri-powered voice assistants to Nest thermostats and surveillance systems — require reliable, high-throughput connections. These devices operate asynchronously across multiple channels, which older networks struggle to support. 5G home internet, paired with modern Wi-Fi 6 infrastructure, handles this complexity with ease, accommodating both latency-sensitive and passive data streams without sacrificing performance.
Gone are the days of technical installation jargon and manual router configuration. ISPs like T-Mobile and AT&T now deliver plug-and-play 5G gateways featuring built-in high-powered modems, pre-optimized radio configurations, and cloud-managed network diagnostics. Users plug in a device, wait a few moments, and get instant access to multi-gigabit connections suitable for households with high data usage. These simplified setups remove friction, accelerating consumer transition away from traditional cable infrastructure.
The collective impact of these technological upgrades redefines what consumers expect from their home internet. It’s not just about speed — it’s about reliability, adaptability, and effortless expansion, all of which position 5G home internet as a prime driver behind the explosion in cord cutting adoption.
Cord Cutting 2.0 doesn’t reflect a passing phase — it marks a definitive shift in how households connect, stream, and engage with digital content. Unlike its first wave, which centered on abandoning cable TV in favor of streaming services, this new era merges home entertainment with high-speed wireless internet access. The lines between broadcasting, telecom, and mobile connectivity have blurred beyond recognition.
AT&T and T-Mobile's gain of 776,000 new 5G home internet users is more than a quarterly highlight. It functions as a barometer. Consumers have redefined "home internet" not as a tangle of coax near a dusty router, but as a flexible, mobile-inspired utility. Easy installation, transparent pricing, and consistent performance are flipping decades of broadband loyalty on its head.
Consumers vote with subscriptions, and the current election favors providers that offer meaningful alternatives to legacy cable bundles. Wireless internet providers are delivering on three strengths:
That combination doesn't just challenge cable — it dismantles the very architecture of its business model.
Adaptation is the only path forward. Legacy cable operators can't win back users with minor discounts or bundled landlines. To compete, they must:
The future won’t be shaped by who controls coaxial networks but by who enables seamless, ubiquitous access across every screen, room, and zip code.
When AT&T and T-Mobile reported a combined 776,000 new 5G home internet users in one quarter, the metric didn’t just measure user growth — it confirmed a realignment of consumer expectations. The old promise of “faster cable” now competes with nationwide 5G coverage packaged with digital simplicity. And consumers are making the shift fast.
For providers still tied to traditional models, the choice is clear: evolve or exit. For everyone else? The home is no longer just connected. It’s untethered, mobile-powered, and controlled entirely by the user.
©2026 American TV. All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: All rights reserved. AmericanTV.com is a website for research and comparison as such, falls under "Fair Use". AmericanTV.com does not provide directly phone, TV, and internet service. All trademarks, logos, etc. remain the property of their respective owners and are used by AmericanTV.com only to describe products and services offered by each respective trademark holder. The use of any third party trademarks on this site in no way indicates any relationship between AmericanTV.com and the holders of said trademarks, nor any endorsement of AmericanTV.com by the holders of said trademarks.
We are here 24/7 to answer all of your TV + Internet Questions:
1-855-690-9884
1-855-690-9884