Cable winning broadband fight ? except when there?s also fiber

The Leichtman Research Group released its report on wired broadband numbers from the second quarter of 2014, and it confirms what most of us know: we want fast Internet.

In most cases, people opt for cable, because that’s the fastest delivery system available. In fact, according to Leichtman, cable added nearly 400,000 subscribers, while telecoms added just two thousand.

But there’s more to the story than the numbers suggest. According to the report, “AT&T and Verizon added 627,000 subscribers via U-verse and FiOS in 2Q 2014, while having a net loss of 636,000 DSL subscribers.” In other words, where available, DSL customers are switching to high speed fiber.

And while cable has dominance, that’s only where a fiber alternative doesn’t exist. Where people have a choice, they often go with fiber. That’s because no one scores lower than cable companies in customer satisfaction, and because fiber has more speed and capacity than cable.

One thing is also certain: everyone wants Internet. According to the report, there are, for the first time, more Internet subscribers in the U.S. than there are cable TV subscribers.

Speed Matters believes that residential and commercial customers should have a choice of Internet options, not just a cable monopoly.

About 385,000 add broadband in the second quarter of 2014 (Leichtman Research Group news release, Aug. 15, 2014)

The Simple Lesson in Broadband Numbers: People Want Speed (The Street, Aug. 18, 2014)