Whether it's becoming more available thanks to copper to fiber migrations, or whether consumers are just finding more reasons to buy, broadband was a big plus for cable and telephone service providers in the first quarter of 2014, Leichtman Research Group (LRG) has found.
The research firm, in a press release, said that they found the 17 largest cable and telco service providers in the U.S. (about 93 percent of the market) added nearly 1.2 million net high-speed Internet subs in the first quarter, and that these providers now have over 85.5 million subs. Cable continues to top the list with 50.3 million of the nation's total.
"Broadband providers had their best quarter in nearly two years," Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst said in a press release.
He quickly added, though, that he doesn't expect that trend to continue.
"If recent history is an indicator … gains will be slower over the next couple of quarters. In each of the past four years net adds in the first quarter were greater than in the second and third quarters combined," he said.
The report pointed out that first quarter 2014 additions amounted to 105 percent of those in the first quarter of the previous year and that AT&T (NYSE: T) U-verse and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) FiOS "now account for 49 percent of telco broadband subscribers compared to 40 percent a year ago."
For more:
- see this press release
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