Friday, May 21, 2021

Telcos Have Stopped Losing Home Broadband Market Share to Cable

U.S. telcos have about 31 percent share of the installed base of U.S. home broadband connections, while cable operators continue to hold about 69 percent share, according to Leichtman Research data. 


Cable operators garnered about 92 percent of the net new additions in the first quarter of 2001, while telcos added about eight percent of the net new additions. 


That is modestly good news for telcos. For most of the last 20 years telcos have seen modest, if any, market share gains and almost continual shrinkage of the installed base. In some years past cable operators have gained more than 100 percent market share, as telco subscriber counts were negative. 


Over the past decade or so, cable has gained a bit more than 80 percent market share in every quarter, so one might argue that telco net additions have waned a bit, even if telcos have stopped losing market share every quarter in 2020.


Broadband Providers

Subscribers at end of 1Q 2021

Net Adds in 1Q 2021


Cable Companies



Comcast*

31,034,000

460,000

Charter

29,234,000

355,000

Cox**

5,435,000

55,000

Altice

4,370,800

11,600

Mediacom

1,454,000

16,000

Cable One

880,000

23,000

WOW (WideOpenWest)

823,800

10,000

Atlantic Broadband

511,004

6,383


Total Top Cable

73,742,604

936,983


Wireline Phone Companies



AT&T

15,435,000

51,000

Verizon

7,193,000

64,000

CenturyLink/Lumen^

4,728,000

(39,000)

Frontier

3,052,000

(17,000)

Windstream

1,122,300

13,000

Consolidated

794,224

2,024

TDS

501,700

8,400

Cincinnati Bell

437,600

1,500


Total Top Telco

33,263,824

83,924


Total Top Broadband

107,006,428

1,020,907


source: Leichtman Research 


While the turnabout does not necessarily mean telcos will challenge cable for the lead in installed base or market share, small gains are a vast improvement over installed base and share losses for two decades.


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