Home Internet Service Via Cable Jumps, Survey Says
Monday November 12 2:16 PM ET
Home Internet Service Via Cable Jumps, Survey Says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of subscribers getting high-speed access to the Internet through cable television lines jumped 15 percent during the third quarter, a telecommunications group said on Monday.
The 825,000 new subscribers brings the total number of U.S. cable modem users to 6.4 million, about 9.1 percent of the 70 million homes able to receive the service, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) said in a survey.
Cable operators also signed up another 1.5 million digital video subscribers during the third quarter, bringing the total to 13.7 million, according to the survey.
An additional 130,000 residential customers also signed up for telephone service via cable lines during the quarter, bringing the total of such customers to 1.45 million.
``Given the economic downturn, this is very encouraging news,'' NCTA President and Chief Executive Robert Sachs said in a statement. The U.S. economy has been slowing in recent months and companies have been laying off tens of thousands of employees, raising concerns about consumer spending.
``Consumers' strong response to digital cable services, in spite of difficult times, confirms the excellent value of these new services,'' Sachs said.
Cable operators hold a growing lead over their fierce competitors for the high-speed Internet customers, the local telephone companies.
AT&T Corp.'s (NYSE:T - news) AT&T Broadband, the nation's largest cable operator, had 1.4 million customers at the end of the third quarter, while AOL time Warner Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), the No. 2 cable provider, reported 1.7 million through it Road Runner cable modem service.
Comparatively, Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - news), the nation's biggest local phone company, had more than 1 million digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet service customers at the end of the quarter. No. 2 local phone company SBC Communication Inc. (NYSE:SBC - news) had 1.2 million.
Email this story - View most popular | Formatted version |
