U.S. Cable TV Companies Accounted for All High Speed Access Account Gains in Third Quarter 2015

U.S. cable TV companies accounted for all the net growth in high speed Internet access connections in the third quarter, adding about 788,000 net accounts. U.S. telcos lost a net 143,000 accounts in the third quarter.

AT&T had a negative net rate of growth for its Internet access services in the third quarter of 2015, adding U-verse connections but losing copper connections, as has been the case for some years. Verizon added about 2,000 net connections, according to Leichtman Research Group.

CenturyLink and Windstream also lost customers, on a net basis, in the third quarter.

Collectively, the top U.S. cable TV companies have 61 percent of the installed base of customers, while the top telcos have about 39 percent of the installed base. Cable TV companies have steadily gained share in the high speed access market over the past several years.

The 17 largest cable TV and telephone providers in the United States, representing about 94 percent of the market, acquired about 645,000 net additional high speed Internet access  subscribers in the third quarter of 2015.

The top cable TV companies added about 790,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter. The top telephone companies lost about 140,000 broadband subscribers in the third quarter of  2015, compared to a gain of about 110,000 in the same quarter of 2014.

AT&T and Verizon added 305,000 U-verse and FiOS in the quarter, offset by a net loss of 432,000 digital subscriber line subscribers.

In the first three quarters of 2015, cable companies added about 2,300,000 broadband subscribers, while telcos lost about 130,000 subscribers.

ISPs	Subscribers at End of 3Q 2015	Net Adds in 3Q 2015
Cable Companies
Comcast	22,868,000	320,000
Time Warner Cable	13,016,000	246,000
Charter	5,441,000	147,000
Cablevision	2,784,000	3,000
Suddenlink	1,202,400	21,600
Mediacom	1,067,000	16,000
WOW (WideOpenWest)	712,300	(800)
Cable ONE	496,865	(171)
Other Major Private Cable Companies**	6,675,000	35,000
Total Top Cable	54,262,565	787,629
Telephone Companies
AT&T	15,832,000	(129,000)
Verizon	9,223,000	2,000
CenturyLink	6,071,000	(37,000)
Frontier^	2,415,500	27,000
Windstream	1,109,600	(11,200)
FairPoint^^	313,982	(1,338)
Cincinnati Bell	281,300	6,200
Total Top Telephone Companies	35,246,382	(143,338)
Total Broadband	89,508,947	644,291

source: Leichtman Research Group