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from: MultiChannel News

FCC: Telcos Outpaced Cable in Broadband Adds

By Karen Brown7/27/2006 3:55:00 PM

Broadband connections are booming, but there are indications that telco broadband players are outpacing cable operators in the rush to sign up new subscribers, according to the latest six-month status report issued by the Federal Communications Commission.

The report, which covers broadband activity from June-December 2005, examined providers that offer high-speed-Internet services with connections of 200 kilobits per second or greater. It found that broadband lines increased 18% during the second half of 2005, from 37.9 million to 42.4 million. For the entire year, broadband lines increased 33%.

But while cable operators still claimed the majority of those lines -- 57.7%, compared with 40.5% for rival telco digital subscriber lines -- for the first time in the survey history, DSL-line additions were greater. There were 3.2 million DSL-line additions in the six-month period, while cable-modem additions lagged behind significantly at 1.6 million.

For the entire year, DSL lines rose by 5.7 million, while cable-modem connections increased 4.2 million.

In addition, cable-modem service is available to 93% of all U.S. households that could also tap cable-TV service, while DSL’s service footprint reaches about 78% of households that were served by local phone service.

Based on a study of ZIP codes, the FCC report found that some form of broadband service is now available to 99% of the United States.