Leichtman Research Group, a research and consulting firm on broadband industries, found that the 18 largest cable and telephone providers in the United States acquired an additional 3 million Internet subscribers in 2011.

With the additions, cable and telephone providers now represent nearly 93 percent of the market.

Although DSL averages download speeds of 1.0 – 1.5Mbps, it just can’t beat cable which is even faster at 2 – 3Mbps. Cable goes unmatched as it is nearly twice as the speed of DSL.

DSL, however, wins in the price department since it’s generally lowers than cable, yet cable providers offer more services than DSL providers.

DSL Reports says it’s because many telecommunications company are slower to adopt upgrades, but cable operators offer packages such as the “Triple Play (News - Alert)” and faster DOCSIS 3.0 speeds.

According to the report, DSL took an even bigger hit in the fourth quarter of 2011 when cable companies raked in 82 percent of subscribers.

Other findings include:

• Top cable companies added 2.3 million broadband subscribers in 2011 – 98 percent of the total net additions for the top cable companies in 2010
• Top telephone providers added 750,000 broadband subscribers in 2011 – 68 percent of the total net additions for the top telephone companies in 2010.

According to Leichtman, this isn’t too surprising since a saturated market means consistently slower growth, though growth remained strong.

Top cable companies include:

• Comcast with 1,159,000 net adds in 2011
• Time Warner (News - Alert) with 491,000 net adds in 2011
• Charter with 252,900 net adds in 2011

Top telephone companies include:

• Verizon with 278,000 net adds in 2011
• CenturyLink with 238,000 net adds in 2011
• AT&T (News - Alert) with 117,000 net adds in 2011

“Despite a high level of broadband penetration in the U.S., the top broadband providers added 88 percent as many subscribers in 2011as in 2010,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group. “At the end of 2011, the top broadband providers in the U.S. cumulatively had over 78.6 million subscribers, an increase of nearly 25 million over the past five years.”




Edited by Jennifer Russell