Thanks to cable firms, the U.S. adds 635,000 new broadband subs

Eighteen of the largest cable and telecom companies added about 635,000 net new subscribers during the third quarter of 2011, with a majority of the subscribers – 83 percent or 525,000 – coming from cable companies and the rest from telephone companies, says Leichtman Research Group, a Durham, NH-based research company. In comparison, during the third quarter of 2010, the total new broadband additions were 800,000.

These 18 companies that include the likes of Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner Cable account for about 77.8 million broadband subscribers in the US. Cable companies have 43.6 million broadband subscribers while phone companies have 34.2 million subscribers.

Here are some highlights from the stats provided by LRG.

• Comcast added 261,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter – 41 percent of the total for the top providers.
• AT&T and Verizon added 642,000 fiber subscribers in the quarter (via U-verse and FiOS), while having a net loss of 619,000 DSL subscribers.
• The top cable broadband providers have a 56 percent share of the overall market, with nearly a 9.5 million subscriber advantage over the top telephone companies  – compared to 8.2 million a year ago.
• Over the first three quarters of 2011, the top broadband providers added nearly 2.3 million subscribers, compared to 2.6 million subscribers added in the first three quarters of 2010