big wireless and cable stocks struggled in the third quarter and they may have each other to blame some of the biggest telecommunications stocks just posted their steepest quarterly declines in two decades amid pressures new and old on the cable and wireless industries shares of wireless companies att inc t and verizon communications inc vz lost 268 and 252 respectively during the third quarter those were the largest quarterly percentage declines since sept 2002 for both names according to dow jones market data comcast corp shares cmcsa declined 253 during the third quarter making for their worst quarterly performance since june 2002 when they lost 277 cable peer charter communications inc chtr saw its stock drop 353 in the latest quarter marking its sharpest decline on record based on available postbankruptcy data going back to 2009 according to dow jones market data cable giants comcast and charter both benefited earlier in the pandemic as connectivity became all the more important to people working and studying from home but the companies have struggled to find growth in their internet businesses more recently comcast saw flat broadband subscriber counts in its second quarter results for which it reported in late july charter posted a loss of broadband subscribers but executives said they would have seen some growth if not for disconnects related to changes in government programming executives at both companies called out several reasons for their growth challenges including that people are moving at lower rates than they used to when people move they may be more inclined to switch cable providers whether by choice or necessity housing occupancy and new construction is lower because of supplychain issues so that i think will get fixed in time but its an issue affecting growth at the moment charter chief executive tom rutledge said on the companys most recent earnings call charter announced last week that rutledge plans to step down from the ceo post to be replaced with chief operating officer chris winfrey who takes over dec 1 the retirement came a few years sooner than many expected according to oppenheimer analyst timothy horan who thought that the early departure was helped by increasing competition and the need for chtr to improve its strategic position the wireless companies have also had recent struggles verizon posted overall gains in postpaid phone subscribers for its lastreported quarter but lost 215000 such subscribers when looking at just the consumer business analysts see the company in a difficult position as verizon has been slightly less promotional than its peers in an acknowledgment of the margin impacts of excessive discounts at the same time however analysts dont think verizon has the network advantage it once did mainly due to tmobile us incs tmus ascent will the company be able to defend its premium branding see verizon hasnt been a very defensive stock lately but heres how things could flip att has been sporting better subscriber growth than verizon though the companys ceo denies that promotions are driving all of that performance nonetheless shares of att stumbled after the companys latest earnings report amid concerns about a lower freecashflow outlook and commentary from executives indicating that customers had become slightly slower with their bill payments while the selloffs in wireless and cable names have their own industryspecific reasons verizon and att can likely blame charter and comcast for some of their woesand vice versa charter and comcast have both making strides in growing their own bases of wirelessphone subscribers through arrangements that lever verizons network the early wireless success for charter and comcast means more competition for wireless subscribers industrywide the two companies have shown spectacular growth in wireless moffettnathanson analyst craig moffett wrote following charters report in july att verizon and tmobile us inc tmushave been plodding more deeply into home internet with efforts in fiber and fixedwireless access executives at charter and comcast both acknowledged some new competition from the wireless companies though they didnt see that as the major reason behind their latest weak subscriber showings cable sentiment is in the basement wells fargo analyst steven cahall wrote in a midaugust note to clients it feels like the longtime supporters are scared off by the broadband netadd picture and persistent acceleration in fwa fixedwireless access net adds while we think encroaching fiber is still the bigger risk it makes a 2022 recovery look tough and 2023 even more crowded with competitive dynamics one company that didnt feel quite the same stockmarket pain in the third quarter was tmobile which saw its shares fall only 03 while pressures at verizon and att can be attributed to the difficult reality that neither one can communicate a compelling value proposition to compete with tmobile moffett wrote in july he thinks that tmobile is still taking share and at an accelerating rateas well as with increasingly affluent demos