Top 24 U.S. ISPs by Subscriber: Q4 2003

The incumbents continue to do well while the competitors, including Microsoft's MSN, are in cost cutting or even restructuring mode.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [May 14, 2004]

Rank	ISP	Subs. (millions)	Date & Source	Market Share
1	America Online (all U.S. AOL brand accounts)	24.3	[April 28, 2004] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	26.5%
2	United Online [2.9 million paid, 2.4 million free accounts]	5.3	[Feb. 5, 2004] SEC Filing	5.8%
3	Comcast (cable broadband)	<5.3	[Feb. 11, 2004] Press Release	5.8%
4	EarthLink (DSL, dialup, cable, satellite, and PLC)	5.2	[Jan. 27, 2004] Press Release	5.7%
5	SBC (DSL only)	3.5	[March 11, 2004] SEC Filing	3.8%
6	Road Runner (cable broadband)	3.2	[April 28, 2004] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	3.5%
7	Verizon (DSL only)	2.3	[March 12, 2004] SEC Filing	2.5%
8	Cox (cable broadband)	<2.0	[Feb. 12, 2004] Press Release	2.2%
9	Charter (cable broadband and 9,600 dialup accounts)	1.6	[March 15, 2004] SEC Filing	1.7%
10	BellSouth (DSL only)	1.5	[Feb. 24, 2004] SEC Filing	1.6%
11	Cablevision (cable broadband)	1.1	[March 15, 2004] SEC Filing	1.2%
12	Adelphia (cable broadband)	1.0	[May 12, 2004] Corporate Communications	1.1%
13	Qwest (DSL only)	.64	[Feb. 19, 2004] Press Release	0.7%
14	Covad (includes 43,200 dialup accounts)	.55	[Feb. 27, 2004] SEC Filing	0.6%
15	Mediacom (cable broadband)	.28	[March 24, 2004] Press Release	0.3%
16	RCN (cable broadband and dialup)	.26	[May 11, 2004] Corporate Communications	0.3%
17	ATX (includes former CoreComm and Voyager.net)	.25	[Nov. 19, 2003] Press Release	0.3%
18	Insight BB (cable broadband)	.23	[Feb. 25, 2004] Press Release	0.3%
19	CenturyTel (DSL and dialup accounts)	.22	[March 12, 2004] SEC Filing	0.2%
20	Hughes DIRECWAY (satellite broadband)	.18	[March 17, 2004] SEC Filing	0.2%
21	ALLTEL (DSL only)	.15	[March 5, 2004] SEC Filing	0.2%
22	LocalNet (dialup and cable broadband)	.11	[Feb. 9, 2004] Corporate Communications	0.1%
23	Cincinnati Bell (DSL only)	.10	[March 23, 2004] SEC Filing	0.1%
24	Internet America (dialup)	.07	[Feb. 17, 2004] SEC Filing	0.1%
25	Other U.S. ISPs	32.3		35.3%

We use Jupiter Research estimates for the total number of subscribers in the United States: 78.1 million subscribers. This number does not include: subscribers at work, at universities, or in government. It only includes residential consumer accounts.

All subscriber counts are as of December 31 2003, except for ATX, which has not provided updated numbers. We do not have numbers for MSN and AT&T Worldnet. In addition, none of the ILECs disclosed dialup subscriber numbers (although Covad, Charter, and others did).

We add Road Runner (although there may be an overlap with AOL subscribers), CenturyTel, and ALLTEL to the list, and remove MSN (which was number 2, using the last available numbers, which date from May of 2003).

MSN notes losses are dropping fast, due to "strong advertising revenue and paid search, while operation costs remained flat and customer acquisition expenditures declined." We think the company is losing subscribers fast, and is not spending on advertising at all, but Microsoft's SEC filing does not provide the details.

Comcast and Cox said they had "fewer than" a specific, round number of subscribers, hence we have preceded their subscriber numbers with the "fewer than" character: "<".

We therefore rank United Online as second with 5.3 million subscribers, and Comcast as third, with fewer than 5.3 million subscribers, but close behind.

We show sources for all numbers. Where the source says "Corporate Communications" we mean that we contacted the company directly. These numbers are less reliable than the other numbers we use. In the case of RCN and Adelphia, the companies are restructuring. RCN's numbers seem honest, and show a significant decreate in dialup subscribers. We expect Adelphia numbers to change after the company emerges from bankruptcy, perhaps selling part or even all of the company.

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