Telcos Lost a Net 160,000 Internet Subscribers in Q2; Cable Firms Gain Half a Million

The largest cable and telco providers, with 96 percent of the market, tacked on 370,000 broadband internet subscribers in Q2, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday vs. about 480,000 in Q2 2018. Cable companies have 66.2 million broadband subscribers; phone companies, 33.7 million, it said. Top cable companies added about 530,000 subscribers in the quarter, while telephone companies had a net loss of about 160,000, it said. Comcast led cable companies with 27.8 million subscribers at the end of Q2, followed by Charter with 25.9 million. Among telcos, AT&T lost 39,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter to 15.7 million; Verizon lost 5,000 to 6.9 million and CenturyLink lost 56,000 to 4.7 million, it said. Frontier had the largest subscriber exodus of all broadband providers, losing 71,000, leaving 3.6 million, it said.