Cable Industry Adds 690,000 Modem Customers
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cable companies across the United States signed up about 690,000 new subscribers for high-speed Internet access using cable modems during the third quarter of 2000, an industry association said on Monday.
About 2.95 million Americans access the Internet via cable modems which the industry says allow users to download material up to 100 times faster than a modem using traditional telephone lines and offer an ``always-on'' feature allowing constant access, the National Cable Television Association said.
``U.S. cable companies are expected to sign up 3.6 million cable modem customers by year-end 2000, well over double the year-end 1999 total of 1.6 million,'' NCTA said in a statement.
AT&T Corp., Time Warner Inc., Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc., among many others, are competing to provide consumers lightning speed Internet access via coaxial cable typically used to provide television programming.
Also during the July to September period, cable companies signed up almost 139,000 new residential telephone customers bringing the total for the year to 370,000, the industry group said.
Approximately 700,000 new customers signed up during the third quarter of 2000 for digital video cable service which offers more channels compressed into slots normally held by a single channel, allowing consumers to receive many more programming services, NCTA said.
About 7.8 million consumers have signed up for digital cable service, up from 5 million in 1999.
Monday November 13 2:30 PM ET
dailynews.yahoo.com |
