US Providers Add Impressive Broadband Subscriber Numbers in Q3

As many as 18 largest cable and telephone providers of broadband services in the U.S, who collectively control about 93% of the market, have acquired about 635,000 net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the third quarter of 2011. These top broadband providers collectively include cable companies having 43.6 million broadband subscribers and telephone companies having 34.2 million broadband subscribers; thus lodging a total of 77.8million subscribers, reveals research Leichtman Research Group.

The cable operators added many new subs to the network, thus expanding the list to 525,000 customers. Among the providers, Comcast claims the no.1 position with 17.8 million, followed by AT&T with 16.5 million, Time Warner Cable at 10.2 million, Verizon Communications at 8.6 million and CenturyLink at 5.5 million.

However, the growth is still considered to be less compared to last years, i.e. of Q3 2010. Growth slowed down, especially among telcos that could add only 38% of the subscribers they pulled along last year. The broadband additions in the third quarter of 2011 amounted to 77% of those in the third quarter of 2010.

It has been observed that, following the traditionally weak second quarter, the broadband market rebounded with over 635,000 net additional broadband customers in 3Q 2011. Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, opined:

Over the first three quarters of 2011, the top broadband providers added nearly 2.3 million subscribers, compared to 2.6 million subscribers added in the first three quarters of 2010.

The trend in the field continued as top cable broadband providers again outpaced telcos. They maintained an overall share of 56%. It can be considered a 9.5 million subscriber advantage (approx.) compared to last years 8.2 million over the top telephone companies.

When Comcast added 261,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter, Verizon added 642,000 fiber subscribers.