Top 22 U.S. ISPs by Subscriber: Q1 2005

Smaller ILECs grow especially fast as independents continue to suffer.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [June 9, 2005]

Rank	ISP	Subs. (millions)	Date & Source	Market Share
1	America Online (all U.S. AOL brand accounts)	21.7	[May 4, 2005] Trending Schedules	23.3%
2	Comcast (cable broadband)	7.4	[April 28, 2005] Press Release	7.9%
3	SBC (DSL only)	5.6	[April 25, 2005] Press Release	6.0%
4	EarthLink (DSL, dialup, cable, satellite, PLC, and webhosting)	5.4	[April 21, 2005] Press Release	5.8%
5	Road Runner (cable broadband)	4.3	[May 4, 2005] Trending Schedules	4.6%
6	Verizon (DSL only)	3.9	[April 27, 2005] Press Release	4.2%
7	United Online [counting paid dialup only]	3.1	[May 3, 2005] Press Release	3.4%
8	Cox (cable broadband)	2.7	[May 9, 2005] Press Release	2.9%
9	BellSouth (DSL only)	2.3	[April 21, 2005 ] Investor tables [.pdf]	2.5%
10	Charter (cable broadband)	2.0	[May 3, 2005] Press Release	2.1%
11	Cablevision (cable broadband)	1.4	[May 5, 2005] Press Release	1.5%
12	Qwest (DSL only)	1.1	[May 3, 2005] Press Release	1.2%
13	Covad (broadband only)	.55	[April 27, 2005] Press Release	0.6%
14	Mediacom (cable broadband, dialup, and SMB broadband)	.41	[May 6, 2005] Press Release [.pdf]	0.4%
15	Insight BB (cable broadband)	.37	[April 28 , 2005] Press Release	0.4%
16	ALLTEL (DSL only)	.28	[April 21, 2005] Press Release	0.3%
17	Citizens (DSL only)	.24	[May 3, 2005] Press Release [.pdf]	0.3%
18	Hughes DIRECWAY (satellite broadband)	.20	Jupiter Research estimate	0.2%
19	CenturyTel (DSL only)	.17	[April 28, 2005] Press Release	0.2%
20	Cincinnati Bell (DSL only)	.14	[May 3, 2005] Spreadsheet [.xls]	0.2%
21	LocalNet (dialup and cable broadband)	.14	[May 9, 2005] Corporate Communications	0.1%
22	GCI (61,200 cable broadband and 39,900 dialup)	.10	[May 4, 2005] Press Release [.pdf]	0.1%
23	Other U.S. ISPs	29.5		31.7%

We use Jupiter Research estimates for the total number of subscribers in the United States: 82.858 million subscribers, and we also use Jupiter Research estimates elsewhere as noted above. 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 March 31, 2005. Note that, due to rounding, the market share percentages in this chart will not always add up to exactly 100.0 percent even though they do for this quarter.

We do not have numbers for ATX, RCN, MSN, and AT&T Worldnet. In addition, many ISPs did not disclose dialup subscriber numbers.

Two ISPs that are restructuring, RCN and ATX, remain off the list. RCN has just reported Q4 2004 subscriber numbers.

We have taken troubled Adelphia off the list. We know of no source of data for Adelphia's subscriber numbers. We believe that only the company that buys Adelphia will ever learn their true subscriber data. This raises another concern, the possibility that subscriber data has been manipulated for years. The suspicion is reinforced in cases where subscriber growth rates are very consistent.

Note that Insight Broadband plans to go private, acquired by The Carlyle Group and insiders.

DIRECWAY broadband has had zero marketing dollars for some time and our subscriber numbers for it are an estimate based on out of date data.

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.

Jupiter Research has additional estimates which are available to research subscribers, and also recently published a fascinating analysis of churn in dialup and broadband that is currently available to Jupiter Research subscribers and will soon be available, for a fee, to others as well.

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