Top U.S. Wireline Broadband Providers Surpass 100M Customers

By Daniel Frankel
published

The fear that the cable business had reached a saturation point in terms of new broadband customers seems to have been unfounded, at least to this point.

The top eight cable operators added 831,917 customers in the third quarter, up 14% over the third quarter of 2018, according to quarterly data provided by Leichtman Research Group. Overall, the top 16 U.S. wireline broadband suppliers, covering 96% of the market, now reach 100,553,426 customers.

Cable’s market share of the U.S. high-speed internet market has surpassed the two-thirds mark, with telco providers losing another 226,257 customers in Q3, according to LRG. The telco sector’s wireline losses were its biggest since the second quarter of 2016.

The heaviest losses were incurred by AT&T, which lost 123,000 HSI users, and Frontier, which was down 71,000.

On the cable side, Charter Communications added 380,000 broadband customers in the third quarter, up from 308,000 in the third quarter of 2018. Comcast added 379,000 HSI customers vs. 363,000 in the year-ago quarter. 

Daniel Frankel
Daniel Frankel

Daniel Frankel is the managing editor of Next TV, an internet publishing vertical focused on the business of video streaming. A Los Angeles-based writer and editor who has covered the media and technology industries for more than two decades, Daniel has worked on staff for publications including E! Online, Electronic Media, Mediaweek, Variety, paidContent and GigaOm. You can start living a healthier life with greater wealth and prosperity by following Daniel on Twitter today!