US Broadband Growth Continued to Slow in 2008

Posted 03/11/2009 at 8:06am | by Paul Lilly

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According to a study conducted by the Leichtman Research Group (LRG), US broadband growth was down 40 percent in 2008. The study surveyed the top 20 US broadband providers -- Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, Charter, Verizon, and others -- and found that there were only 5.4 million new broadband customers last year, compared to 8.5 million new customers in 2007. But this was to be expected, said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG.

"The total number of broadband subscribers in the US doubled in the past four years, growing to nearly 68 million at the end of 2008," said Leichtman. "With increased market penetration, growth inevitably had to slow, but there was still room for 5.4 million more broadband subscribers in 2008."

Comcast claimed the most new subscribers in 2008, adding over 1.3 million, with Time Warner not terribly far behind by adding 847,000 new subscribers. The next closest competitor is Cox, who added just 275,000 subscribers.

Despite Leichtman's optimistic outlook, the last time that US broadband subscriber growth was on the rise was 2006, according to ArsTechnica. The average US broadband speed, which checks in at 2.3Mb/s down and 435Kb/s up, also lags behind other parts of the world, such as industrialized Asian nations averaging 63Mb/s down.

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