» U.S. Broadband Growth Slows, as Cable Outpaces DSLTelecommunications Industry News

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

U.S. Broadband Growth Slows, as Cable Outpaces DSL

6:00 am on August 25, 2008 | Category: Business, Internet, Telecom Services

America’s top cable companies added a total of 617,426 high-speed internet customers in the second quarter of 2008, while leading telecom operators added just 215,514, according to recent data from Leichtman Research Group (LRG).

Cable operators remain dominant overall with 35.3 million high-speed internet subscribers, or a 54% share of the fixed-line broadband market. Telecom carriers, which seemed poised to capture a majority of America’s broadband market just one year ago, have fallen behind in customer additions with a current subscriber base of 29.7 million.

Overall subscriber additions fell significantly in comparison to the second quarter of 2007 with cable broadband growth falling 15%, and the number of customers added by leading telecos declining by 77%.

“Net broadband additions in the quarter were the fewest of any quarter in the seven years LRG has been tracking the industry,” according to LRG president and principal analyst, Bruce Leichtman. “While the relative number of quarterly broadband adds has certainly peaked, the decline in additions this quarter compared to the same period last year was exacerbated by Verizon and AT&Tâ€™s emphasis on selling higher-speed FiOS and U-verse bundled services, often at the expense of the traditional DSL service.”

Telecommunications Industry News