Slow quarter for US broadband adoption
New figures from Leichtman Research Group reveal that net US broadband additions in the second quarter were the fewest of any quarter in the eight years it has been tracking the industry.
It found that the nineteen largest cable and telephone providers in the US – representing about 93% of the market – acquired 634,000 net additional high-speed internet subscribers in Q2.
The top phone companies added about 385,000 subscribers, representing 61% of the net broadband additions for the quarter versus the top cable companies.
Overall, broadband additions in 2Q 2009 amounted to 71% of those in 2Q 2008 – with telcos having 178% as many additions as a year ago, and cable 37% as many adds as a year ago.
The top broadband providers now account for 69.9 million subscribers – with cable companies having 38 million broadband subscribers, and telephone companies having about 31.9 million subscribers.
Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, said: “The second quarter has proven to be traditionally weak for broadband growth, but with the market becoming more mature, broadband adds further waned in 2Q 2009.
“In a reverse of last year’s second quarter, when cable operators got three-quarters of the net broadband adds, Telcos earned over 60% of the broadband net adds in 2Q 2009.”
Last year was a tough one for broadband, according to recent Point Topic figures, with the first half of 2008 in particular seeing low growth and low net additions almost across the board.
The exceptions were China and Brazil which, in common with their BRIC partners, saw much slower growth later in 2008 than earlier.
Looking at internet adoption in the UK, an Ofcom report claimed that one in five UK adults who do not have the internet at home are likely to sign up in the next six months.