North America Cable, Satellite & Telecom Services: Can operators avoid a negative spiral in prices?

Research evidence excerpt

North America Cable, Satellite & Telecom Services: Can operators avoid a negative spiral in prices?

Equity Research

North America Cable, Satellite & Telecom Services

25 June 2026

Can operators avoid a negative

spiral in prices?

Pricing worries have been less of a talking point in recent North America Cable, Satellite & Telecom

weeks than the unprovable threat of satellite competition, Services NEUTRAL

but could add to concerns about industry direction, North America Cable, Satellite &

especially if aggregate volumes come under pressure. Telecom Services

Kannan Venkateshwar

+1 212 528 7054

Overview kannan.venkat@barclays.com

U.S. wireless competition has not yet turned into an outright price war, but discipline is starting BCI, US

to fray at the edges. Since late 2025, Verizon and AT&T have both shifted from primarily relying Lauren Bonham

on device promotions and toward more visible plan-price and value-based offers, including +1 212 526 3856

lower single-line entry points, converged wireless/broadband bundles, richer data allowances, lauren.bonham@barclays.com

fee relief, and loyalty economics. TMUS has been more restrained on headline price cuts, but BCI, US

continues to defend its value positioning through family-plan economics, bundled benefits, and Viren Uchil

a five-year price guarantee. The risk is that in case of weaker industry volumes, the combination +1 (212) 526 7523

of changing front book mix, multi year price locks and continued high front-book/back-book viren.uchil@barclays.com

price gaps could drive continued expansion of promotions from the edges to mid tier and family BCI, US

plans. In this context, we detail plan changes made by operators over the last 6 months to Siyuan (Cindy) Huang, CFA

determine the potential direction of travel. +1 212 526 7952