Comcast’s $1 billion charge includes layoffs as broadband losses mount

Comcast expects a $1 billion charge in the fourth quarter of 2026 that includes layoffs as it overhauls its connectivity business, Deadline reported on October 22. The move comes as the company loses broadband and cable customers, putting pressure on the business that also houses its wireless operations.

The sharpest detail for employees is also the biggest unanswered question: Comcast executives gave no number of planned job cuts and no timetable for them, according to Deadline. The report attributed the charge and layoffs announcement to executives speaking on the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

Where Comcast says the overhaul is focused

Deadline reported that the layoffs were not expected to affect NBCUniversal. Comcast plans to separate NBCUniversal into a standalone public company, with that separation on track for mid-2027, the outlet reported. That distinction places the reported cuts within the connectivity overhaul rather than the planned media-company split.

Why Comcast’s connectivity business is under pressure

CNBC reported that Comcast lost a net 144,000 domestic residential broadband customers and 274,000 cable customers in the third quarter. Its mobile business added 368,000 customers. Those figures show how growth in wireless is occurring alongside continuing declines in two established services.

Comcast’s Connectivity & Platforms revenue also fell from a year earlier. Deadline put the decline at 2.6% to $19.7 billion, while CNBC reported a 2.7% decline. The outlets’ slightly different percentage figures do not change the direction of the result: revenue in the division fell during the quarter.

The company had already made mobile a larger part of its response to broadband competition. CNBC reported that Comcast announced in January 2025 it would refocus on mobile and pursue more competitive pricing after years of stagnant broadband growth and pressure from wireless providers including Verizon and T-Mobile.

Steve Croney, chief executive of Comcast’s Connectivity & Platforms division, called mobile a ‘tremendous growth opportunity’ on the earnings call, according to CNBC. He described it as a capital-light business that can draw on Comcast’s existing broadband customer base. The latest customer figures show why that strategy matters to the division even as the company prepares the restructuring charge.