Broadband Households and Presidential Preference Parallel Leichtman Research Group, Inc., in their updated report, Broadband, Cable and DBS Across the US 2005, found that at the
beginning of 2005 broadband penetration of households in the US stood at close to 29% nationwide. Significant state-by-state disparities in broadband penetration remain, however. While
these disparities are largely related to variations in household income across the states, these differences are strikingly similar to the state-by-state splits in the 2004 presidential election.
- Eight states had broadband penetration over 35% - all voted for John Kerry in 2004
- Eleven states had broadband penetration at or below
20% - all voted for George Bush in 2004
- Cumulative broadband penetration in states that voted for Kerry was 33% - compared to 25% in states that voted for Bush
Overall Broadband Penetration |
States voting for Kerry in 2004 | 33.0% |
States voting for Bush in 2004 | 25.1% |
US Overall | 28.6% |
Sources: Federal Communications Commission and Leichtman Research Group, Inc. |
In related
broadband research, LRG found that as of the end of the second quarter of 2005, the twenty largest cable and DSL providers in the US, that represent 94% of the broadband market for cable and DSL,
accounted for about 37.6 million high-speed Internet subscribers. Other key findings for the quarter include:
- Combined net additions in the second quarter of
2005 totaled 1.8 million subscribers
- The top DSL providers added about 938,000 subscribers, representing 52% of the net broadband additions for the quarter versus cable,
which added about 866,000 broadband subscribers
- The top cable broadband providers maintain a 6.4 million subscriber advantage over DSL, representing a 59% share of
the total market versus DSL
Broadband Internet Subscribers at end of 2Q 2005 | Net Adds in 2Q 2005 |
Cable |
Comcast | 7,705,000 | 297,000 |
Time Warner | 4,323,000 | 201,000 |
Cox | 2,846,438 |
97,779 |
Charter | 2,022,200
| 43,800 |
Adelphia | 1,556,567 | 70,537 |
Cablevision | 1,519,864 | 79,285 |
Bright House Networks* | 785,000 | 22,000 |
Mediacom | 426,000 | 19,000 |
Insight | 391,300 | 23,500 |
RCN | 229,000 | 0 |
Cable One | 209,600 | 12,200 |
Total Top Cable | 22,013,969 | 866,101 |
DSL |
SBC | 5,968,000 | 360,000 |
Verizon** | 4,142,000 | 278,000 |
Bell South | 2,473,000 | 124,000 |
Qwest | 1,190,000 | 68,000 |
Sprint | 590,000 | 39,000 |
Covad | 554,400 | 7,000 |
All Tel | 319,315 | 36,189 |
CenturyTel | 194,847 | 21,079 |
Cincinnati Bell | 145,000 | 4,400 |
Total Top DSL | 15,576,562 | 937,668 |
Total Broadband | 37,590,531 | 1,803,769 |
Sources: The Companies and Leichtman Research
Group, Inc. |