Cable, Telcos Added Fewer Broadband Subs in '21 but More Than in '19: LRG

After a pro forma gain of about 4.86 million broadband subscribers on a COVID-19 “pandemic-related surge” in 2020, the top 96% of U.S. cable and wireline phone providers added 2.95 million net additional subscribers in 2021, reported Leichtman Research Group Monday. They added about 2.55 million in 2019. Of the total broadband providers at the end of 2021, cable had 75.7 million, led by Comcast’s 31.9 million, and wireline phone companies had 32.7 million, led by AT&T with 15.5 million. Charter added 1.2 million, ending the year with 30 million broadband subscribers; Cox added 150,000 for a total of 5.5 million. Verizon added about 236,000 subscribers for a total of 7.4 million. Altice, Century Link/Lumen, Frontier and Consolidated all shed broadband subscribers last year. Though the top broadband providers added “significantly fewer” subs last year vs. 2020, net adds in 2021 were higher than in each year from 2016-2019, Leichtman said.