ET Telecom reports on Charter’s financials, which reveal an interesting consequence of the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program. Spoiler alert, they lost customers when low-income households lost subsidies…

Charter Communications beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit and reported fewer-than-expected broadband subscriber losses on Friday, sending its shares up 7% in premarket trading.

With a highly competitive broadband market providing little opportunity for subscriber additions in major markets, Charter’s bet on rural expansion is boosting its business.

The company’s offerings such as Spectrum Internet, which provides lower cost data plans combined with high-speed internet, is well received by customers.

The broadband and cable TV provider’s internet customers decreased by 149,000 in the second quarter, compared with Visible Alpha estimates of a loss of 264,520 users.

The losses were higher sequentially, which the company attributed to the end of a federal internet subsidy.

Charter has been a particularly big beneficiary of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a government broadband support program that offered connectivity to 23 million households in the United States.

It posted profit of $8.49 per share, well above analysts’ average estimate of $7.98, according to LSEG data.

Charter now expects its full-year 2024 capital expenditure to total about $12 billion, a decrease from its previously expected range of between $12.2 billion and $12.4 billion.