US cable operators in the US – led by Comcast and Time Warner Cable — added 804,000 broadband subscribers in the third quarter of 2015, according to Strategy Analytics.
Comcast and Time Warner Cable alone added a combined 552,000 new subscribers. Comcast has accounted for 42 percent of new subscribers among the operators.
The total number of US broadband subscribers increased by 679,000 due to losses in DSL and slower growth in fiber subscriptions at AT&T and Verizon. Over the past twelve months, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have accounted for 71 percent of the 3 million new broadband subscribers.
The top nineteen tracked operators in the US have seen strong growth in 2015, adding more than 2.1 million new subscribers in the third quarter. AT&T and Verizon faced challenges as AT&T lost 106,000 subscribers and Verizon added only 2,000.
Broadband ARPU increased between 2 percent and 7 percent across cable and telecom providers during the third quarter of 2013 in the U.S. Both cable and telecom operators are investing in capabilities to offer higher speed tiers, and customers are responding favorably.
Charter Communications has the highest broadband ARPU.
The broadband ARPU of AT&T reached $46.48 (5.5 percent), CenturyLink $36.13 (+6.7 percent), Charter Communications $49.88 (+7 percent), Comcast $45.61 (4 percent) and Time Warner Cable $48.17 (+2 percent)
“Fiber growth is still strong, but the telecom operators haven’t been able to shake off the losses of DSL subscribers. In 2016, we expect to see a real battle in broadband, as cable operators begin to roll out DOCSIS 3.1 for even higher speed offers, placing additional pressure on telecoms,” said Jason Blackwell, director of the Service Provider
Strategies service (SPS) at Strategy Analytics.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
