Cable's Q2 Broadband Rout Wrapping Up: Beating Telcos 3-To-1 For New Subscribers

Cable's Q2 Broadband Rout Wrapping Up: Beating Telcos 3-To-1 For New Subscribers

More big cable and phone companies have reported their Q2 results, and the trend we spotted last week -- cable companies fiercely beating out telcos for new broadband subscribers -- is even stronger today.

Add in today's results, including Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Qwest (Q), and cable has signed up 74% of the 744,000 net new high-speed Internet subscribers, while telcos have attracted just 26%. That means that in Q2, cable companies signed up approximately three broadband subscribers for every subscriber that signed up for high-speed Internet service from phone companies.

The big difference: Download speed. While big telcos like Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) are aggresively building out new super-fast, fiber optic-based networks, cable Internet is still significantly faster than their existing DSL offering in most places. And we think that as high-bandwidth stuff like Internet movie streaming becomes more popular, subscribers are willing to pay a bit more for faster access. So far, that's been to cable's advantage...