Published: 17 November 2017 17 November 2017

"In the first three quarters of 2017, cable companies added about 2,000,000 broadband subscribers, while Telcos lost about 430,000 subscribers." Bruce Leichtman. Ten years of telco dis-investment across half the United States is allowing cablecos to rise from 55% of the market to 64%. They are pulling further away every quarter. 

AT&T's stock went down $13B on they day they warned about disappointing numbers. If they had spent even a fraction of $13B on investment, their numbers would have been fine. Verizon's investment % has gone down for several years; this quarter, they lost 10,000  broadband customers.

Frontier lost 63,000 subscribers, The stock has gone down 85% this year to a level that implies a serious bankruptcy risk. That is unlikely before 2020 because they don't have large debts coming due. They have been dis-investing for years, with capex less than depreciation. Centurylink lost 101,000 for the same reason. 

I only have one choice for a decent Internet connection, Time Warner cable. Verizon can only supply 3 megabits to my building in Manhattan. About half of the U.S. has only one source, the cableco. Cable prices have gone up 30% during a period the actual costs of broadband have been flat to down. That's a market failure.

These numbers are from Leichtman, whose figures have long been accurate.

 

Broadband Providers	Subscribers at end of 3Q 2017	Net Adds in 3Q 2017
	Cable Companies
	Comcast	25,519,000	213,000
	Charter	23,603,000	285,000
	Altice	4,020,900	16,500
	Mediacom	1,194,000	9,000
	WOW (WideOpenWest)	730,000	2,400
	Cable ONE*	519,062	(2,662)
	Other major private company**	4,860,000	15,000
	Total Top Cable	60,445,962	538,238
	Phone Companies
	AT&T	15,715,000	29,000
	Verizon	6,978,000	(10,000)
	CenturyLink	5,767,000	(101,000)
	Frontier	4,000,000	(63,000)
	Windstream	1,017,400	(8,400)
	Cincinnati Bell	307,900	800
	FairPoint^	301,000	(3,193)
	Total Top Telco	34,086,300	(155,793)
	Total Top Broadband	94,532,262	382,445