Top 22 U.S. ISPs by Subscriber: Q1 2006

As the U.S. moves closer to a duopoly, cable and phone companies rise through the rankings. We estimate that the market share of the top ten ISPs is about 68 percent (and we list Time Warner twice in the top five).

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [June 15, 2006]

Rank	ISP	Subs. (millions)	Date & Source	Market Share
1	America Online (all U.S. AOL brand accounts)	18.6	[May 3, 2006] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	20.1%
2	Comcast (cable broadband)	9.0	[April 28, 2006] SEC 10-Q	9.7%
3	SBC (AT&T) (DSL only)	7.4	[April 25, 2006] Press Release [.pdf]	8.0%
4	Verizon (DSL only)	5.7	[May 9, 2006] SEC 10-Q	6.2%
5	Road Runner (cable broadband)	5.4	[May 3, 2006] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	5.8%
6	EarthLink (DSL, dialup, cable, satellite, PLC, and webhosting—SK EarthLink and some other business lines not included)	5.3	[May 5, 2006] SEC 10-Q	5.8%
7	BellSouth (DSL only)	3.1	[May 3, 2006] SEC 10-Q	3.4%
8	Cox (cable broadband)	3.1	[March 28, 2006] Press Release	3.3%
9	United Online (counting paid dialup only)	2.8	[May 3, 2006] Press Release	3.0%
10	Charter (cable broadband)	2.3	[May 12, 2006] SEC 10-Q	2.5%
11	Cablevision (cable broadband)	1.8	[May 10, 2006] SEC 10-Q	1.9%
12	Qwest (DSL only)	1.7	[May 3, 2006] Press Release [.pdf and .xls]	1.8%
13	Sprint (DSL only)	.78	[May 5, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.8%
14	Insight BB (cable broadband)	.51	[May 10, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.6%
15	Mediacom (cable broadband, dialup, and SMB broadband)	.50	[May 10, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.5%
16	Covad (broadband only)	.48	[May 4, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.5%
17	ALLTEL (DSL only)	.44	[May 9, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.5%
18	Citizens (DSL only)	.33	[May 5, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.4%
19	CenturyTel (DSL only)	.29	[May 3, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.3%
20	Hughes DIRECWAY (satellite broadband)	.26	Jupiter Research estimate	0.3%
21	LocalNet (dialup)	.26	ISP-Planet article (reconfirmed by e-mail on June 7, 2006)	0.3%
22	Cincinnati Bell (DSL only)	.17	[May 10, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.2%
23	Other U.S. ISPs	22.3		24.1%

We use Jupiter Research estimates in several areas. Jupiter Research estimates 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 off the list, but we expect it to grow back.

Cox has not yet filed a financial report for Q1, 2006.

United Online is no longer disclosing subscriber numbers and no longer considers itself an ISP. Thanks to Bill Van Avery, who showed us how to decipher their new reporting scheme.

CenturyTel disclosed dialup subscribers for Q4, 2005, when they were 30 percent of the total, but failed to declare them for Q1, 2006, giving them an apparent subscriber loss of about 100,000 in one quarter.

Methodology
Subscriber counts are as of March 31, 2005, except for Cox and DIRECWAY. LocalNet affirmed that its subscriber numbers remain roughly the same. We believe that any ISP that reported continued linear subscriber growth after an acquisition (and many, unlike LocalNet, have done so) may have falsified subscriber numbers.

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 >