Telco / Cable: 10 Key Growth Trends That We Are Closely Watching in 2026
1. Sea Change in Industry Leadership...
Huge shift across all sectors.
Telco-Verizon: Dan Schulman; T-Mobile: Srini Gopalan.
Cable-Comcast: @Steve Croney; Cable One/Sparklight Careers: Julie Laulis. Esteemed industry veteran. Successor to be named soon; Astound Broadband.
Top notch list of industry leaders above.What are / will be their new postures, and how will they each respond to increasing levels of competition and AI inroads across the entire Telco / Cable ecosystem? Get ready for a new era in the sector.
2. Can Cable Grow Subscribers in 2026?
Seems like a simple question… but there are a gazillion drivers and factors behind it. If not growth, how close are we to stabilization in the HSD subscriber base?
3. STARLINK and Low Earth Orbit (LEO)... How real is the threat?
From birth, to first roll, to crawl, to sizable steps in 2026 and beyond in the rural broadband market.
Where there is a clear line of sight, what pressure does LEO put on FWA, DSL, and YES, even more regional Fiber builds?
Seriously, my PE friends. Yes, seriously. Take Elon and STARLINK seriously.
4. Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)... From Growth Phase to Maturity in Product Lifecycle?
Huge Hat Tip to the trailblazers like Mike Sievert.
Completely shook up and disrupted the entire industry, especially DSL and Cable during the pandemic.
Strategies, capabilities, and playbooks differ across providers like AT&T and T-Mobile. What does 2026 have in store?
5. From Public to Private... DigitalBridge's acquisition of WOW!; A model template for more of what's to come in the industry?
Two great companies and teams. Many eyes watching how DigitalBridge plays its hand in the early innings.
6. M&A, What M&A?...
Remember T-Mobile/Metronet, AT&T/Lumen Technologies, Verizon/Frontier Internet Communications, Charter Communications/Cox Communications, etc.?What will the steady state output of these combined entities look like (in T-Mobile's case- we would like to see more intel on Fiber + Mobile).
7. Intersection of AI, Telco / Cable, Data Center, and Middle Edge and Multi-Access Edge Compute (MEC)
As AI models move from Training to Inference to the Application layer where Low Latency becomes critical, what existing Data Center and Telco / Cable assets hold value, and can be repurposed? Is this just another IoT / 5G Hype Cycle? How well positioned is Telco / Cable, and what is the realistic TAM?
8. Converged Bundle: Mobile + Fiber Internet
The tip of AT&T's spear... can anything or anyone break the momentum?
9. Charter Communications and Video
Have Scott Barton and Charter Communications cracked the Video code? Feels like a change in the Cable/Video narrative after all of these years- how does that translate to stabilizing HSD subscribers?
10. It's the Economy, Silly Goose- Inflation, the "Demogorgon" nobody invited to the party
How will pesky and persistent inflation shape PE and other large CAPEX payback and returns?
If you build Fiber, it's not a question of if they will come.
It’s now a question of if they can afford to come.
Initial penetration rates might have slowed down but still look handsome… but what about terminal penetration rates?
Many business cases and large investments were made in pre-pandemic and pandemic timeframes.
Please DM me for detailed insights and Growth convictions.
Thank you, and all the best this week.
AP
Investors Providers- Macquarie Group, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, GI Partners, Surf Internet, Brightspeed, KKR, Blackstone, EQT Group, Apollo Global Management, Inc., Thoma Bravo, Bluepeak.
