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.