(Editor’s note: The Broadband Report is a regular feature in WRAL TechWire.)
DURHAM, N.H. – The Leichtman Research Group (LRG) has found that the 17 largest cable and telephone providers in the United States acquired nearly 385,000 additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the second quarter of 2014.
These top broadband providers, representing about 93 percent of the market, now account for more than 85.9 million broadband subscribers nationwide.
According to the report released on Friday, top cable companies have nearly 50.7 million broadband subscribers and top telephone companies have more than 35.2 million subscribers.
Overall, broadband additions in the second quarter amounted to 130 percent of those during the same period in 2013.
The top cable companies accounted for 99 percent of the net broadband additions for the quarter versus the top telephone companies adding about 380,000 subscribers (a 128-percent jump of the net additions for the top cable companies compared to the same period in 2013.
The number of broadband subscribers now exceeds the number of cable TV subscribers for the first time ever — with about 49,915,000 broadband subscribers at the end of the second quarter, compared to 49,910,000 cable TV subscribers.
The top telephone companies added about 2,000 broadband subscribers last quarter — compared to a loss of about 2,000 in 2013. AT&T and Verizon added 627,000 subscribers via U-verse and FiOS last quarter, while having a net loss of 636,000 DSL subscribers.
The top cable broadband providers have a 59 percent share of the market versus the top Telcos, the report noted.
“With the addition of more than 30 million broadband subscribers over the past decade, cable providers have clearly expanded well beyond their roots in cable TV service,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG. “As of the end of 2Q-2014, the top cable providers now have more broadband subscribers than cable TV subscribers.”
