(Bloomberg) -- Charter Communications Inc. missed profit estimates and reported steeper customer losses than predicted, while warning that more users will drop service with the expected expiration of a federal broadband subsidy.

Charter on Friday reported earnings per share of $7.55, compared with analysts’ average expectation of $7.78. Revenue of $13.7 billion roughly matched estimates. It shed 392,000 residential video customers and 72,000 broadband customers, with each number exceeding estimates. 

Shares fell as much as 8.9% before trimming losses and trading at $254.02, down almost 2%, at 10:21 a.m. New York time. Charter has fallen more than 35% this year.

Charter faces stiff competition from competitors including wireless providers that have been taking market share by delivering broadband over airwaves, without needing to run a costly line into the home.

The company’s “broadband slump won’t lessen for a while,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Geetha Ranganathan wrote in a note on Friday.

Executives pointed to the pending expiration in May of the Affordable Connectivity Program, which offers $30 monthly subsidies. Roughly 5 million of the program’s 23 million participants are Charter customers. 

“We will lose some customers,” Chief Financial Officer Jessica Fischer told investors. Fischer said Charter will work to retain those who are losing subsidies, “and we expect to retain the vast majority of them as customers.”

Chief Executive Officer Chris Winfrey called the subsidy loss “unprecedented.”

“The short-term impact, it’s difficult to predict,” Winfrey said. He called it a one-time event affecting subscribers and revenue, and added “it’s not going to impact our long-term growth potential.”

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