The 17 largest U.S. cable operators and telcos, representing 93% of the market, added 295,000 broadband customers in the usually sluggish second quarter, but still managed to bring in 116% of the total added in the year-ago period, Leichtman Research Group reported Tuesday.
Top U.S. cable MSOs continued to gain ground even as growth showed signs of slowing, while the telcos’ mix of customers presented a mixed bag as DSL subs continued to drop off.
Top MSOs added 296,000, almost 10% off what they added a year-ago, while the big telcos lost a combined 2,000 subs, significantly narrowing a loss of 73,000 in the second quarter of 2012.
AT&T and Verizon Communications added 802,000 “fiber” subscribers (a figure that includes AT&T U-verse), and dropped 818,000 DSL customers.
Overall, the top ISPs studied by LRG ended the quarter with 82.7 million subs. Cable ended the quarter with 47.8 million broadband subs, good for a market share of 58%, and ahead of the telcos’ total of 34.9 million.
The second quarter marked the third time in the past four years that the top U.S. telcos cumulatively reported small net broadband losses, according to LRG president and principal analyst Bruce Leichtman. Meanwhile, U.S. cable companies have accounted for 85% of the 2.6 million net broadband ads over the past year.
