Sunday, August 15, 2021

Cable Leads U.S. ISP Accounts, Telcos have Most to Gain

AT&T, Comcast and Charter Communications own networks covering the most U.S. residents (and presumably housing units). But it is difficult to directly correlate population covered with “homes passed” or even “locations served.” 


Most locations are served by at least two different terrestrial providers. Subscriber percentages hinge at least partly on marketing strengths (cable operators have at least 70 percent of the installed base). 


U.S. ISP Population Coverage and Subscribers

Firm

Population %

Subscriber %

AT&T

42

15

Comcast

36

29

Charter

34

27

Verizon

17

7

Lumen

9

2

Cox Comm.

7

5

Altice

5

4

sources: FCC,

Leichtman Research


Still, the numbers suggest telcos have lower take rates than do cable operators, which corresponds to reality. Also, the telcos arguably have the greatest upside from network upgrades that would match or exceed cable performance metrics. With appropriate pricing, that should allow telcos to eventually close the take rate gap with cable companies, all other things being equal.


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