Cable is prefer to telcos in the broadband subscriber race

As the two largest U.S. telcos, namely AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) begin to wind down their respective U-verse and FiOS rollouts, cable operators have been happily attacking markets with their DOCSIS 3.0-based services with speeds ranging from 20-100 Mbps and triple play bundles.

These efforts paid off for cable operators as in 2011 they added a total of 2.3 million subscribers, or 75 percent of overall broadband additions in 2011. Top cable operator Comcast added 336,000 broadband Internet subscribers and 146,000 voice subscribers in Q4, for example.

By comparison, the top telcos only added 750,000 broadband subscribers in 2011.

During the fourth quarter, AT&T and Verizon both saw growth with their next-gen U-verse and FiOS data products, adding 587,000 and 201,000 subscribers, respectively. However, AT&T lost 49,000 traditional DSL broadband connections, an issue likely attributable to subscribers in non U-verse markets subscribing to a cable offering.

Even though the U.S. broadband market is arguably becoming saturated, it's clear that consumers continue to like their broadband connections as both cable and telephone providers collectively added 765,000 broadband subscribers in 2011

"Despite a high level of broadband penetration in the U.S., the top broadband providers added 88% as many subscribers in 2011 as in 2010," said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. "At the end of 2011, the top broadband providers in the U.S. cumulatively had over 78.6 million subscribers, an increase of nearly 25 million over the past five years."