Comcast Adding Internet Subscribers Faster Than AT&T and Verizon Combined

Comcast (CMCSA) continues to add broadband Internet subscribers as telecom giants like AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) trail.

Comcast’s third quarter earnings Wednesday tell the tale of a company weathering the downturn pretty well–but not well enough to excite Wall Street. Comcast reported net income of $771 million, or 26 cents a share, on revenue of $8.55 billion, up 10 percent from a year ago. Comcast reaffirmed that operating cash flow would grow 8 percent to 10 percent in 2008.

Here’s the tale of the broadband tape:

• Comcast added 382,000 high-speed Internet subscribers in the third quarter.
• Verizon added 225,000 FiOS Internet subscribers.
• AT&T added 148,000 broadband connections.

Add it up and AT&T and Verizon combined can’t hang with Comcast. More notable is that both AT&T and Verizon are coming off a smaller base and have doubled down on wireless.

So what’s Comcast’s secret sauce? Apparently it’s phone service. Comcast is adding voice customers at a rapid clip. The cable giant added 483,000 voice customers in the third quarter. Comcast’s phone revenue increased 44 percent to $690 million in the third quarter.

On a conference call with analysts, Comcast executives noted that the phone service is the best value that the company has. Comcast appears to be using that voice services as a way to sell other services. However, Comcast also added that it is seeing more competition from AT&T and Verizon so the broadband war is far from over.

Comments

[RLLH:]

Not mentioned is that ATT and Verizon are still building their fiber network. A more meaningful statistic would be what are the numbers where Comcast and ATT/Verizon both offer service. With that information I would know better which is more likely to offer the best stock value in the future.

2008 Oct 29 06:21 PM

[george-mich...:]

AT&T added 148,000 broadband connections and Uverse broadband about 300,000. You missed verizon D S L broadband connections also. I am glad you added verizon fios 225,000. Mr.Larry Dignan
please fact check first rather than sensational news making.

2008 Oct 29 07:40 PM

[george-mich...:]

ATT and Verizon added a million broadband connections. Please add all the numbers Verizon FIOS, AT&T Uverse and D S L

2008 Oct 29 07:45 PM

[BerkeleyBob:]

All I know is that I wait for FIOS service to be available in my East Bay neighborhood. Comcast broadband and HDTV is pretty reliable but expensive. I'd pay up for faster internet and higher picture quality from Verizon. I am long VZ.

2008 Oct 30 01:27 PM

[applesauce:]

Bell south recently bought by ATT stoped providing cable to my area in south Florida. I either had to get a dish, not good in Florida with storms. or not have a single bundled provider. I switched to Comcast which is $ 20 cheaper for the package. This happened to a large number of folks and I am sure Comcast gained significantly. Odd why they would abandon the in place fiber laid by Bell South two years ago.

2008 Oct 31 10:53 AM