Cable and telco service providers added a total of about 260,000 broadband customers in the second quarter, the weakest performance ever for the sector, according to Leichtman Research Group.
Cable operators continued to dominate broadband, adding about 328,000 high-speed Internet customers in the second quarter, according to LRG. Telcos, led by a loss of 96,000 high-speed data customers at AT&T in the second quarter, lost a total of 70,000 broadband subscribers in the period. Continued weakness in the digital subscriber line segment is offsetting gains for fiber-based data services.
Overall, net broadband additions were about 1 million less than in the first quarter of 2011 and about 100,000 less than in the second quarter of 2011, making Q2 2012 "the weakest on record," Leichtman Research president and principal analyst Bruce Leichtman said in a statement. "Yet, over the past year, the top broadband providers have added nearly three million subscribers, with cable providers accounting for 83% of the net additions."
Cable companies still hold the greatest broadband market share - 57% -- and have nearly 11 million more high-speed data customers than the top telcos, according to LRG.
Comcast led all providers with 156,000 broadband additions in the seasonally weak second quarter, followed by Time Warner Cable at 72,000 and Cox Communications at 25,000, According to LRG. On the telco side, CenturyLink earned the top spot with 18,000 broadband additions, followed by Frontier Communications with 5,000 additional high-speed data customers, FairPoint Communications with 2,300 and Verizon Communications with 2,000.
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