Comcast stock falls as company fails to add Internet users for first time ever

The company's long streak of adding internet subscribers is over, but it is still the largest internet provider in the US.

The number of residential broadband customers has dropped by 10,000 and the number of business broadband customers has increased by 10,000. There was no change in the number of residential and business internet customers.

The company's cable division is experiencing a unique and evolving macroeconomic environment that is putting pressure on the volume of new customer connects. In the quarter, the company lost cable-TV and voice over internet protocol phone customers.

The increase in broadband revenue was due to higher average prices and the fact that the company has more customers than it did a year ago.

Despite the increase in the S&P 500, the stock price of the company fell over 9 percent in today's trading.

Zero broadband growth a first for Comcast

It's the first time in the history of the company that it didn't gain broadband subscribers. The period since the merger of AT&T and Comcast is covered.

Competition from fiber and wireless services was cited as a reason for cable's decline, but it was inevitable that there would be limits on customer growth eventually. After years of rapid customer increases, the company has probably signed up everyone who wants its service and lives in a home within its network.

Fast home internet service is the only viable option in many parts of the US. There are people who would like to get cable internet in areas where it isn't profitable enough to build, and there are people who have to pay tens of thousands of dollars up front to get it.

Network extensions and improvements in the "line extensions" and "scalable infrastructure" were the areas where capital spending was reduced. Spending went up in the first six months of the year.

In the first half of the year, the cable division's capital expenditures increased 2.5 percent to $3.1 billion, mostly due to increased investment in line extensions, but also due to decreased investment in customer premise equipment.