12M Served By 'Major' Cable And DSL Providers

By Jeff Baumgartner, CED Magazine
from BroadbandWeek Direct, May 3, 2002

Nearly 12 million homes receive broadband Internet service from major U.S. cable and telephone providers, following additions of 5 million over the past year, according to a new report from Leichtman Research Group Inc.

Leichtman said the ten largest U.S. MSOs provided cable modem service to about 7.8 million subs, and the four regional telcos served about 4.1 million DSL customers at the end of the first quarter of 2002.

The research group added that year-to-year growth for both technologies were largely level, with cable seeing a 78 percent growth in subs, and DSL, at 79 percent, just a tick ahead. Cable, however, added almost twice as many subs (3.4 million) than the major residential DSL providers (1.8 million) during the period.

"The challenges ahead for both cable and DSL providers are to find ways to continue to grow the subscriber base, and to add new services for existing customers," said Leichtman Research President and Principal Analyst Bruce Leichtman, in a statement.