Astound RCN customers whose card payments stopped began paying wired rivals more often
Share beginning payment to a wired competitor from April 2025–March 2026 that was absent in the second half of 2024
Share beginning payment to a wired rival
Source: YipitData U.S. credit and debit card panel. Customers whose Astound RCN payments stopped n=906; retained customers n=6,304. Both cohorts used identical calendar windows.
Chart data
| Series | Share beginning payment to a wired rival |
|---|---|
| Astound RCN payments stopped | 5.5% |
| Retained Astound RCN customers | 1.3% |
Which wired providers accounted for the difference?
Comcast or Xfinity appeared among 3.4% of Astound RCN customers whose payments stopped and 0.9% of retained customers, a 4.0-times difference. Charter or Spectrum appeared among 2.4% and 0.4%, respectively, a 5.9-times difference. Satellite-only providers were flat at 0.4% for both groups. Mobile-carrier billing combines phone and home-internet payments, so the analysis cannot isolate carrier-based fixed wireless.
How long did the observable wired-provider switches persist?
Among 47 customers whose Astound RCN payments stopped and who had a newly observed Comcast, Charter, or Spectrum payment relationship that met the before-and-after rules, the new provider appeared in 7.2 of the following 12 months on average. Twenty-three people, or 49%, paid the provider in at least 10 months, while 27, or 57%, did so in at least six months. Because this follow-up group contained only 47 people, those persistence rates are not precise estimates.
Assumptions & Methodologies
We analyzed our U.S. credit and debit card panel. The analysis used only RCN-labeled payments because Grande and Wave could not be identified reliably. The stopped-payment cohort included 906 customers with at least three recurring payments, active in the fourth quarter of 2024, whose last RCN payment occurred by March 31, 2025. Retained customers numbered 6,304 and still paid in 2026. A new provider was absent from July–December 2024 and present from April 2025–March 2026. Card-payment stops are not confirmed cancellations, mobile-carrier descriptors mix services, and the result does not establish why customers switched.