Amplifying evidence that U.S. cable broadband service providers cleaned up in the second quarter of 2015, the top MSOs combined to add about 510,000 subs in the period, or 138% of net additions, Leichtman Research Group reported Tuesday.
The top telcos, meanwhile, lost a combined 150,000 high-speed Internet subs in the quarter, LRG said, noting that the group has been hit by broadband sub losses in four of the past six second quarters. While DSL losses are the primary culprit, AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS broadband subs now account for 56% of telco broadband customers, versus 42% two years ago.
The 17 largest U.S. cable operators and telcos, representing about 94% of the market, added 360,000 net additional high-speed Internet subs in Q2, LRG said. Combined, those ISPs account for nearly 88.9 million subs. Of that, 53.5 million get broadband from a cable operator, per LRG.
LRG said overall broadband adds in the quarter were 97% of those from the year-ago quarter.
“Over the past year, cable has accounted for 95% of the approximately 3,000,000 broadband additions,” LRG president and principal analyst Bruce Leichtman said, in a statement.
