• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 18, 2007

First Quarter Sees Almost Three Million New High-Speed Internet Subscribers

According to Leichtman Research Group, Inc., the nineteen largest cable and telephone providers in the US, representing about 94% of the market, acquired over 2.9 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the first quarter of 2007. The top broadband providers now account for 56.2 million subscribers, with cable companies having over 30.7 million broadband subscribers, and telephone companies having over 25.4 million subscribers.

Additional broadband findings for the quarter include:

• The top telephone companies added 1.49 million subscribers, 51% of the net broadband additions for the quarter
• The top cable providers had a record tying quarter with about 1.45 million subscribers added
• Telephone companies have added more broadband subscribers than cable providers in each of the last ten quarters, acquiring about 1.86 million more subscribers than cable over that time
• The top cable broadband providers have a 55% share of the market, with a 5.3 million subscriber advantage over the telephone companies

Broadband Internet Snapshot(first quarter, 2007)
Broadband Internet	Subscribers at end of 1Q 2007	Net Adds in 1Q 2007
Cable Companies
Comcast	12,050,000	563,000
Time Warner	7,000,000	356,000
Cox	3,495,000	160,000
Charter	2,525,900	123,900
Cablevision	2,118,000	79,000
Insight	656,000	44,800
Mediacom	600,000	22,000
Cable One	308,089	19,079
RCN	280,000	5,000
Other major private cable companies	1,720,000	75,000
Total Top Cable	30,752,989	1,447,779
Telephone Companies
AT&T	12,855,000	690,000
Verizon	7,398,000	416,000
Qwest	2,305,000	167,000
Embarq	1,104,000	87,000
Windstream	710,000	53,868
Citizens	464,055	20,300
CenturyTel	413,000	44,000
Cincinnati Bell	208,000	9,700
Total Top Telephone Companies	25,457,055	1,487,868
Total Broadband	56,210,044	2,935,647
Sources:  The Companies and Leichtman Research Group, Inc., May 2007

Other related findings from the first quarter of 2007 include:

• The top cable companies added a record 1.1 million telephone subscribers
• The top cable companies added over 1.2 million digital cable subscribers, the most net additions since the fourth quarter of 2002
• The top cable companies added about 200,000 basic cable subscribers
• The three largest telephone companies added over 150,000 wireline video subscribers, and added 335,000 video subscribers in DBS partnerships

 Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc.  "The top cable companies now have over 30 million broadband subscribers, and about 10 million telephone subscribers, to complement their enhanced TV offerings."

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