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Cable Expands Broadband Domination as AT&T and Verizon Lose Customers (arstechnica.com)
The cable industry's grip on the U.S. broadband space increased last quarter, with Comcast and Charter gaining nearly 500,000 subscribers, combined. Phone companies AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, and Frontier, however, all lost Internet customers. ArsTechnica reports:The 14 largest ISPs, accounting for 95 percent of the US market, gained 192,510 Internet customers in Q2 2016, bringing the total to 91.9 million, Leichtman Research Group reported today. Cable companies accounted for all of the gains, adding 553,293 subscribers for a new total of 57 million. The phone companies lost 360,783 subscribers, bringing them down to 34.9 million. Phone companies' losses more than doubled since Q2 2015, when they lost about 150,000 subscribers. [...] Comcast and Charter, the two biggest ISPs, led the way in subscriber gains. Comcast added 220,000 broadband subscribers to boost its total to 24 million, while Charter (the new owner of Time Warner Cable) added 277,000 subscribers for a new total of 21.8 million. AT&T lost 123,000 subscribers, lowering its total to 15.6 million. Verizon lost 83,000, leaving it with 7 million Internet customers. CenturyLink and Frontier lost 66,000 and 77,000, respectively.
They also will pad their cable TV numbers by pricing Internet Only plans above Internet+TV plans. So to save money, you need to be counted as a cable TV subscriber even if you put the box in your closet and never plug it in.
I'm not in Comcast territory, but I'm not much better off. Time Warner Cable... I mean Charter is my only high-speed wired option.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
In other news, pay TV subscriptions drop 665,000 in the second quarter, 2016
http://www.leichtmanresearch.c...
Maybe many those slow DSL and satellite video subscribers moved to cable companies to get the speed they need for streaming video entertainment.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
How does AT&T stay in business?
Because, they pretty much own the Copper Cable Plant in the ground. Additionally, they really can't just "quit" copper, because all the old people with Landlines would freak out. They stay in business because the consequences of pulling out of COPPER landlines would be political suicide.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
they really can't just "quit" copper, because all the old people with Landlines would freak out.
Which is why they have an army of sales people trying to switch everybody to "u-verse". Yes, it's copper for the "last mile". But then it switches to fiber at a curbside box.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way