The leading cable and telephone service providers have increased their broadband subscriber bases by over 2.5 million in the 3rd quarter. Combined they account for 94 percent of the U.S. market.
Taken together, the top 20 cable and telephone companies have 50.9 million broadband internet customers. Cable has over 28.1 million, with the telephone companies representing 22.7 million DSL and other broadband subscribers.
The telephone companies have been growing at a faster rate than cable in the broadband sector, adding 1.33 million new subscribers for the quarter, or 53 percent of the total growth. They've grown quicker than the cable companies for eight straight quarters; around 1.5 million more than cable over that period of time.
"Not surprisingly, the broadband market in the U.S. bounced back in the third quarter of 2006 with about 450,000 more net additions than in the second quarter of the year. Through the first three quarters of 2006 there have been over 7.7 million net broadband additions," said the report authored by LRG president and principal analyst Bruce Leichtman.
According to the LRG report, the top five cable broadband providers in third quarter: Comcast (CMCSA) (net broadband subscriber gain of 536,000), Time Warner (TWX) (251,000), Cox (75,000), Charter (CHTR) (88,100) and Cablevision (CVC) (72,438).
The top five telephone providers were: AT&T, (T) (net broadband subscriber gain of 374,000), Verizon (VZ) (448,000), Bell South (BLS) (176,000), Qwest (Q) (175,000) and Embarq (EQ) (84,000).
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