This growth is made evident in a new report from analyst firm
Strategy Analytics that predicts double-digit subscriber growth for incumbents AT&T (
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Alert) and Verizon in 2009.
According to the report, the two carriers -- each in the midst of a major fiber broadband rollout -- led in broadband customer acquisition in the fourth quarter of 2008, adding 242,000 and 212,000 new broadband subscribers, respectively.
Overall, U.S. broadband service providers added more than six million new subscribers in 2008, about a 9 percent year-over-year growth rate.
Philadelphia-based cable operator Comcast (
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Alert) finished the year with 14.29 million broadband customers, making it the largest broadband service provider in North America. The company also recently became the
third largest provider of telephone services in the U.S.
“Consumer broadband appears to have been spared much of the carnage we’re seeing in other sectors,” noted Ben Piper, analyst and director of the Strategy Analytics (
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Alert) Multiplay Market Dynamics service, in a
press release. “Despite a weak economy, consumer broadband has shown some surprising resilience. While North American broadband growth is certainly not what it was a year ago, subscriber numbers are still quite healthy.”
According to the report, AT&T and Verizon’s (
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Alert) success in attracting new customers can be partly attributed to the fact that both are rolling out new fiber-based networks capable of delivering greater bandwidth and supporting advanced multimedia applications.
“The companies’ fiber offerings have enjoyed impressive consumer take-up and a strong growth trajectory,” the release states.
Strategy Analytics predicts that fiber subscriptions will grow by more than 60 percent in 2009.
“Fiber will clearly be a broadband growth engine in 2009,” noted John Lee, author of the report and analyst in the Strategy Analytics Digital Consumer Practice. “It’s the only platform experiencing double-digit subscriber growth in 2009.”
The report, “Broadband Service Provider Performance Benchmarking: North America 4Q’08” summarizes quarterly subscriber growth trends for the 30 leading broadband service providers (BSPs) operating in the United States and Canada. It tracks subscribers, market shares and selected financial metrics, and provides operator-level subscriber forecasts for 2009. In addition, the report contains a flat file of all data, allowing clients to create customized pivot tables.
For more information, visit
www.strategyanalytics.com.
