Cable expands its lead over phone companies in the race for broadband customers
You hate your cable company? You've got lots of company. But when it comes to broadband, it seems that plenty of consumers are willing to give those rascals another chance.
Cable's poised to report startling figures for high-speed Internet subscription gains in the second quarter, some analysts note today. Indeed, the period could go down as the first ever in which cable's biggest competitors, the phone companies, lost ground, says Richard Greenfield, an analyst at brokerage firm BTIG.
AT&T's and Verizon's earnings reports this week show that they collectively lost 64,000 broadband customers in the quarter, and Greenfield doesn't expect to see the loss turn into a gain when Qwest reports its data in early August.
The problem is that the vast majority of phone broadband customers get DSL. That technology "is simply not fast enough in today's broadband world," Greenfield says. Cable "has no such issues."
He says cable now has about 56% of all broadband subscribers vs. 44% for phone.
And the gap may continue to widen. Thomas Eagan, an analyst at Collins Stewart, says in a note today that 90% of new broadband customers probably went to cable in the three months that ended in June -- a big change from his prediction of 43%.
We'll start to see if they're right on Wednesday: Comcast will be the first major cable company to report its second quarter results.
By David Lieberman
