At Q1 2026, virtual operators took 93% of every new mobile line added in North America: 903,000 of 967,000 net adds, while the region's network operators added just 64,000 between them. Is this a one-quarter blip, or are the operators that own the networks handing mobile growth to cable operators? The first chart frames it. MVNOs have held a steady 8% of the installed base for a year, yet their share of quarterly net adds jumped from 42% to 93%. This is an MNO collapse, not an MVNO surge: MVNO adds (+903k) were flat-to-down from +930k, while MNO adds crashed from +3,882k in Q4 2025 to +64k. Strip out IoT subscriptions that are accounted into MNO, and MNO retail net adds turn negative. Two cable resellers carried the quarter. Comcast (+434k) and Charter (+303k) alone account for 76% of all net adds, leasing capacity on the very networks whose own retail lines flatlined. The big three stalled or reversed. T-Mobile decelerated to +217k from +2,439k a quarter earlier, AT&T slowed to +119k, and Verizon contracted by 132,000. Canada told the same story: Vidéotron (+29k) was the only carrier to grow, while Bell shed 177,000 lines. Part of this is seasonal, as Q4 promotions pull demand forward and January brings disconnections. The structural signal is harder to dismiss: the MNOs are redeploying capital into fiber and satellite while cable takes the mobile customer. With 5G already at 74% of subscriptions, the growth that remains is migration, not new connections. This research is based on Dataxis Mobile coverage for North America. Contact us for a demo to see the depth of our data.
