Broadband Internet Grows To 25 Million In The U.S. According to Leichtman Research Group, US cable and DSL providers accumulated over 24.6 million high-speed Internet subscribers by the
end of 2003. The twenty largest cable and DSL providers in the US added a combined 7.4 million high-speed Internet subscribers in 2003.
Additional broadband provider results include:
-
Cable adding about 4.5 million broadband Internet subscribers compared to close to 3 million added by the major DSL providers over the same time period
- The top cable broadband providers now
have a 63% share of the overall broadband market.
And, from a new LRG study, Broadband Internet Access & Services in the Home 2004, based on a survey of 1,600 households nationwide, come some
details on the usage and opinions:
- 62% of residential households subscribe to an online service at home, and about one-third of this group subscribes to broadband
- 73% of broadband
subscribers are "very satisfied" with their Internet service compared to 49% of narrowband/dial-up subscribers
- About 30% of current narrowband subscribers are interested in getting broadband
Bruce Leichtman, President, Leichtman Research Group, says "Clearly the market for broadband has become more competitive in the past year, and competition will only intensify as the number of
broadband subscribers in the US doubles over the next four years. Yet it is premature to proclaim that DSL is catching up to cable."
| Broadband Internet | Subscribers at end of 2003 | Net adds in 2003 |
| Cable |
| Comcast | 5,283,900 | 1,663,600 |
| Time Warner | 3,228,000 | 802,000 |
| Cox | 1,988,527 | 580,577 |
| Charter | 1,565,600 | 427,500 |
| Cablevision | 1,057,020 | 286,895 |
| Adelphia | 951,406 | 324,236 |
| Bright House Networks | 620,000 | 130,000 |
| Mediacom | 280,000 | 89,000 |
| Insight | 230,000 | 85,200 |
| RCN | 195,000 | 42,669 |
| Cable One | 133,800 | 54,400 |
| Total Top cable | 15,533,253 | 4,486,077 |
| DSL |
| SBC | 3,516,000 | 1,317,000 |
| Verizon | 2,319,000 | 649,000 |
| Bell South | 1,462,000 | 441,000 |
| Qwest | 637,000 | 127,000 |
| Covad | 517,000 | 136,000 |
| Sprint | 304,000 | 153,000 |
| ALLTEL | 153,028 | 82,846
|
| Cincinnati Bell | 99,000 | 24,400 |
| CenturyTel | 83,400
| 31,100 |
| Total Top DSL | 9,090,428 | 2,961,346 |
| Total Broadband*** | 24,623,681 | 7,447,423 |
Sources: The Companies and Leichtman
Research Group, Inc.