(Editor’s note: The Broadband Report is a regular feature in WRAL TechWire.)

DURHAM, N.H. – Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that the seventeen largest cable and telephone providers in America acquired three million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in 2014.

These top broadband providers – representing about 94 percent of the market – now account for 87.3 million subscribers with cable companies having 51.9 million broadband subscribers and telephone companies having 35.4 million subscribers, according to the research out last week.

Other key findings in the study include:

  • The top cable companies netted 89 percent of the broadband additions in 2014 compared to 82 percent of the broadband additions in 2013.
  • The top cable companies added 2.65 million broadband subscribers in 2014, 123 percent of the total net additions for the top cable companies in 2013.
  • The top telephone companies added about 345,000 subscribers, 72 percent of the total net additions for the top telephone companies in 2013.
  • AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS broadband subscribers now account for 53 percent of telco broadband subscribers, up from 37 percent at the end of 2012.

The top cable companies had 2.3 million more net additions than phone companies in 2014 compared to 1.7 million more net additions in 2013.

“At the end of 2014, the top cable and Telco broadband providers in the US cumulatively had over 87.3 million subscribers, adding 3 million subscribers in the past year,” said LRG President and Principal Analyst Bruce Leichtman. “While about four of every five U.S. households now get broadband at home, there were more broadband net additions in 2014 than in 2013. This was the first year-over-year increase in broadband net adds since 2006 over 2005.”

LRG specializes in research and analysis on the broadband, media and entertainment industries.