Third quarter earnings announcements from cable operators in North America show that the leading cable companies have grown their telecom revenue by almost 10 percent year over year, despite the deep recession, TeleGeography (News - Alert) said.

 

Overall, the largest cable operators have grown their broadband access subscriber bases grow by seven percent and their telephony subscriber bases by 13 percent over the last twelve months.

 

In the first half of 2009 cable companies around the world generated over $30 billon in broadband access and voice services, TeleGeography said.

 

“Leading cablecos have succeeded in transforming their businesses to the point where almost 40 percent of their revenues now come from telecom,” John Dinsdale, a TeleGeography analyst, said.

 

Comcast (News - Alert), Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global all now feature in the top 15 ranking of broadband internet service providers, and telecoms remain an engine for growth for many cablecos around the world, Dinsdale said.

 

Globally, cable companies now serve 82 million broadband access subscribers and 49 million telephony subscribers. Up to this point those voice service customers have come from the consumer segment. Cable operator telecom revenues have grown 28 percent a year since 2003, while the aggregate wireline market has grown at just about four percent annually, TeleGeography said.

 

But at least in the United States, cable operator revenue growth prospects furthermore are shifting to commercial telephony services.

 

Cable companies now account for 29 percent of broadband access subscribers and nine percent of telephony subscribers in markets where they are licensed to compete. This equates to approximately 15 percent of residential telecoms revenues in those countries.

 

Up to this point, cable has been a factor mostly in North America and Western Europe, but operators in Eastern European and Latin America will gain significant market share in the coming years, TeleGeography said.

 

Cable gains in the Asia-Pacific region will play a more limited role, however. While both China and India have huge cable TV markets, cable companies there are prohibited from offering telecoms services.