"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 |