Cable and DSL Providers Continue to Make Strong Gains in Broadband

America’s top broadband providers had another three months of healthy growth in the quarter that ended on March 31, adding a total of 3.06 million subscribers, according to a recent newsletter from the Leichtman Research Group.

DSL providers such as Verizon and AT&T added 1.66 million net customers in the quarter, bringing their combined broadband user base to 20.2 million. Cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner, meanwhile, added 1.4 million subscribers, bringing their combined total to nearly 25.8 million as of March 31.

This confirms a previously reported trend that DSL providers are singing up new customers noticeably faster than their cable counterparts. This is largely due to the slightly higher price of cable internet plans, which is failing the huge influx of price-conscious dialup converts.

Source: www.teleclick.ca

DSL Service Providers

AT&T prepares to one-up broadband and cable TV providers with fiber services

AT&T is planning to roll out television and internet services through Fiber to the Node soon to compete with the likes of not only Verizon's FiOS services, but also with satellite and cable TV/Internet providers and DSL providers. The service is a two-part package: the first part is a modem for high speed internet, and the second part is a DVR service for IPTV.

The broadband internet service is a bit subdued, with three tiers: the Express package with a downstream bandwidth up to 1.5Mbps, a Pro package which features 3Mbps down, and the Elite option capable of 6Mbps downlink. All tiers have a 1Mbps upload speed and are each targeted at various types of users. Unfortunately when compared to the 20+ Mbps from FiOS or the experimental markets for 20Mbps Comcast HSI, 6Mbps seems sorely inadequate.

The television service will come packaged with broadband internet and will also come in 3 different packages. The U200+Internet package will start at $69/month and will feature 100+ channels, up to 3 receivers with 1 being a DVR model, 18 digital music channels, and the video-on-demand feature.

The U300+Internet package will feature 150+ channels, up to 3 receivers with 1 DVR, the 18 music channels and video-on-demand, as well as the movie package which contains 30+ premium channels including Starz, Encore, Showtime, The Movie Channel, and FLIX starting at around $89/month.

The top tier, U400+Internet will feature all of the options in the U300 package plus 25+ more channels, 9 HBO channels, 9 Cinemax channels, and the Sports Package which will include various channels with sports programming and will cost customers at least $114/month. An optional fourth receiver can also be added to each package along with a Spanish channel package.

AT&T's IPTV service will utilize a receiver with a built-in DVR from Tatung which will allow 80 hours of recordings on the 80GB hard drive. The service will also support video-on-demand similar to Comcast's On-Demand feature bundled with their cable TV service. However, AT&T claims there will also be options to configure the DVR from the internet, remotely as well as other neat options (PDF) that haven't been incorporated into Windows MCE or TiVo yet. Specifically, and perhaps the largest advantage in our opinion, is the ability for the Tatung DVR to broadcast IPTV to other devices on the network -- a feature TiVo and Comcast are working on, but haven't quite perfected yet. Unfortunately, the Tatung DVR is also completely outclassed when it comes to high fidelity outputs. The device has no HDMI or DVI capabilities.

Users will still have the option to add any of the premium programming to the first two tiers but they will, of course, pay a premium price. There is no word of high-definition programming on the official website but sources around the internet are saying AT&T will be updating the receivers and services to support high definition programming in the future.

U-verse is starting to roll out in several areas, although the largest test market is currently San Antonio, Texas.