Top 22 U.S. ISPs by Subscriber: Q4 2005

DSL providers showed a particularly strong end of the year. As another ISP vaulted up the rankings with acquisitions, two ISPs fell off the list.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [May 4, 2006]

Rank	ISP	Subs. (millions)	Date & Source	Market Share
1	America Online (all U.S. AOL brand accounts)	19.5	[February 1, 2006] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	21.0%
2	Comcast (cable broadband)	8.5	[February 22, 2006] SEC 10-K	9.2%
3	SBC (DSL only)	6.9	[March 1, 2006] SEC 10-K and Annual Report	7.5%
4	EarthLink (DSL, dialup, cable, satellite, PLC, and webhosting—SK EarthLink and some other business lines not included)	5.3	[March 16, 2006] SEC 10-K	5.7%
5	Verizon (DSL only)	5.1	[March 14, 2006] SEC 10-K	5.5%
6	Road Runner (cable broadband)	5.0	[February 1, 2006] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	5.4%
7	Cox (cable broadband)	3.1	[March 28, 2006] Press Release	3.3%
8	BellSouth (DSL only)	2.9	[March 1, 2006] SEC 10-K/A [.pdf]	3.1%
9	United Online (counting paid dialup only)	2.9	[March 6, 2006] SEC 10-K	3.1%
10	Charter (cable broadband)	2.2	[February 28, 2005] SEC 10-K	2.4%
11	Cablevision (cable broadband)	1.7	[February 17, 2006] SEC 10-K	1.8%
12	Qwest (DSL only)	1.5	[February 14, 2006] Press Release [.pdf and .xls]	1.6%
13	Sprint (DSL only)	.69	[March 7, 2006] SEC 10-K	0.7%
14	Covad (broadband only)	.57	[March 1, 2006] SEC 10-K	0.6%
15	Mediacom (cable broadband, dialup, and SMB broadband)	.48	[March 16, 2006] SEC 10-K	0.5%
16	Insight BB (cable broadband)	.47	[March 16, 2006] SEC 10-K	0.5%
17	ALLTEL (DSL only)	.40	[March 10, 2006] SEC 10-K	0.4%
18	CenturyTel (DSL and dialup)	.39	[[March 15, 2006] SEC 10-K	0.4%
19	Citizens (DSL only)	.31	[March 1, 2006] SEC 10-K	0.3%
20	Hughes DIRECWAY (satellite broadband)	.26	Jupiter Research estimate	0.3%
21	LocalNet (dialup)	.26	[December 19, 2005] ISP-Planet article	0.3%
22	Cincinnati Bell (DSL only)	.16	[March 15, 2006] SEC 10-K	0.2%
23	Other U.S. ISPs	24.3		26.2%

We use Jupiter Research estimates in several areas. Jupiter Research estimatse the total number of subscribers in the United States to be 83.1 million subscribers at the end of last year. Note, however, that superior data is available to Jupiter Research subscribers.

This number does not include: subscribers at work, at universities, or in government. It only includes residential consumer accounts.

About data concerning certain ISPs
We also use an old Jupiter Research estimate for the number of subscribers of Hughes DIRECWAY.

Note that Insight Broadband's plans to go private, acquired by The Carlyle Group and insiders, were completed on December 16, 2005. However, the SEC filing notes that key executives retain control of the company:

Through a new class of Series A voting preferred stock issued in connection with the transaction, Sidney R. Knafel, Michael S. Willner and related parties continue to maintain control of a majority of our voting power. Accordingly, the merger is not expected to result in a change in the operational aspects of our business

Adelphia has been acquired by Time Warner and Comcast, but we believe that Adelphia subscribers are not yet included in reported numbers.

RCN is reporting "Revenue Generating Units" as opposed to subscriber numbers, and has therefore been removed from the list for failing to report subscriber numbers.

GCI (of Alaska) fell to 93,900 subscribers and is off the list, but we expect it to grow back. The company's government services arm continues to grow and accounted for 16.3 percent of the company's revenues in 2005.

Methodology
Subscriber counts are as of December 31, 2005, except for LocalNet and DIRECWAY.

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 MSN and several others.

We do not show ISPs with fewer than 100,000 subscribers. Although some smaller ISPs, such as Severna Park, Md.-based ToadNet, do disclose subscriber numbers, the vast majority do not.

We show sources for all numbers.

For further information, go to page 2: How We Count >