According to the latest data from Point Topic the US has suffered a net drop in fixed broadband subscribers.
Data to the end of the second quarter 2016 shows a decline of nearly 200,000 fixed broadband subscribers and a negative quarterly growth rate of -0.2%. In contrast China added 7.6 million fixed broadband customers and grew by over 3% in the same period. Other major broadband markets also saw healthy growth.
While the drop in the US was affected by slower growth in subscribers using all fixed broadband technologies, the main cause was the 4% decline in copper based broadband connections. AT&T, Century Link and Verizon saw their DSL lines decrease quarter-on-quarter by 7.7%, 1.6% and 27.2% respectively.
AT&T’s total fixed broadband customer base fell by 123,00 in Q2 2016. The telco appears to be shifting its focus increasingly on LTE mobile broadband and satellite TV. In addition to recently acquiring the satellite TV giant DirecTV,...
