The twenty largest cable and telephone providers in the US, who represent about 94% of the market, achieved record high-speed internet additions in 2006, according to new research from Leichtman Research Group (LRG).
LRG says that combined net additions for the year totaled over 10.2 million subscribers – a total that exceeded the previous record set in 2005 by about 500,000 subscribers.
As of the end of 2006, the top US broadband providers accounted for over 52.2 million high-speed internet subscribers, says LRG.
The top cable broadband providers now have a 55% share of the overall market versus telephone companies, with 29.3 million high-speed internet subscribers compared to 24.0 million for phone companies.
Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, said: “Despite an increasingly penetrated broadband market, both cable and telephone companies were able to add more broadband subscribers in 2006 than in any previous year.
“With over 53 million broadband subscribers in the US, it is increasingly important for providers to focus on gaining profitable subscribers, rather than attempting to set a new record in 2007 for net broadband additions.”
ComScore Networks recently announced that there was a 10% year on year increase in worldwide internet usage in January 2007 (see Worldwide Internet Usage Increases).
Meanwhile eMarketer published a forecast which said that US online adspend will increase over the coming years but that the high growth rate for average ad spending per user fails to match up with the impressive growth rate for overall internet ad spending (see US Online AdSpend Per User To Increase)
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