U.S. Cable Operators Have 70% Share of the Installed Base

U.S. cable TV companies have about 70 percent share of the installed base of fixed network internet access lines, according to Leichtman Research. That might have seemed a shocking development three decades ago, when legacy telecom firms might have been assumed to have the inside track to lead the market. 

Virtually all observers would agree that this market structure exists not because “telcos cannot market” their services but principally because the cost of upgrading telco fixed networks to compete has a next-to-impossible business case. Simply put, the financial return from upgrading to fiber-to-home facilities is not there. 

That accounts for the interest in lower-cost alternatives such as 5G or 4G fixed wireless, 4G or 5G mobile access. 

Even with years of marketing, Verizon’s FiOS fiber to home network seems to get sustained market share of only about 30 percent. Across a base of 16 million homes, some note that Verizon seems essentially stuck at about that level of adoption.

AT&T has about 14 million to 15 million homes able to buy FTTH service. But AT&T seems relatively stable at about 30 percent share. 

CenturyLink fares worse, with FTTH take rates at about 11 percent to 17 percent. 

Those are daunting statistics, as they suggest--even when FTTH is available, most consumers do not buy it. In the United Kingdom, Ofcom estimates that 30 percent of consumers who could buy a fiber to home actually do so. 

AT&T believes it will hit 50 percent take rates for its fiber to home service after about three years of marketing, but so far those hopes seem unrealized. 

In South Korea, FTTH take rates seem to be only about 10 percent, for example, though network coverage is about 99 percent. 

In Japan and New Zealand, take rates have reached the mid-40-percent range, and network coverage might be about 90 percent. But in France and the United Kingdom, FTTH adoption is in the low-20-percent range. 

Perhaps 10 percent of Australians buy the fastest service available, whether that speed is 100 Mbps or a gigabit.