T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert (pictured) admitted to being surprised by a strong initial performance by MVNO services offered by cable operators, but played down their chances of maintaining momentum.

Sievert told an investor conference he believes cable players are “here to stay”, with MVNO services “a tool for their broader corporate ambitions” rather than a sector they would “mine massive amounts of money out of directly”.

Cable operators Comcast, Charter Communications and Altice USA garnered combined net additions of 568,000 for their MVNO services in Q3, leaving them with around 4.8 million users in total.

Sievert said the additions were likely boosted by a decline in deactivations and a rise in home broadband business spurred by Covid-19 (coronavirus).

But he cautioned the companies would face an inevitable trade-off, with higher customer numbers resulting in more churn and so making it “harder for them mathematically over time”.

“Right now, they’re not really making money even with the kind of tailwinds of not having to face many deactivations. So it gets harder from here.”

Comcast reported a loss of $50 million for its mobile division in Q3, despite pulling in $400 million in revenue. Charter Communications’ loss stood at $88 million on revenue of $368 million.