Cable Keeps Adding Broadband Customers While Telcos Shed Them, Leichtman Says

Phone companies continue to shed broadband customers, while cable companies continue to add them, Leichtman Research Group said in a news release Thursday. During Q3, the U.S.'s 14 largest cable and telco providers added 625,000 net additional subscribers, roughly the same as added in Q3 2015, LRG said. Cable companies added roughly 775,000 subscribers in Q3, about the same as the year-earlier quarter, it said. Telcos meanwhile lost about 150,000 subscribers, similar to the 145,000 lost in Q3 2015, LRG said, adding that they have had net broadband losses in five of the six most recent quarters. For the first three quarters of 2016, cable added about 2.44 million broadband subscribers, compared with 475,000 lost by telcos, the research firm said.