Top 22 U.S. ISPs by Subscriber: Q3 2006

As consolidation continues, larger providers grow and smaller providers go private or sell out.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [December 28, 2006]

Rank	ISP	Subs. (millions)	Date & Source	Market Share
1	America Online (all U.S. AOL brand accounts)	15.2	[November 1, 2006] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	16.3%
2	Comcast (cable broadband)	11.0	[October 26, 2006] Press Release	11.8%
3	SBC (AT&T) (business and consumer DSL, plus U-Verse and satellite)	8.1	[October 23, 2006] Press Release [.pdf]	8.7%
4	Road Runner (cable broadband)	6.6	[November 1, 2006] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	7.1%
5	Verizon (FiOS and DSL)	6.6	[November 6, 2006] SEC 10-Q	7.1%
6	EarthLink (DSL, dialup, cable, satellite, PLC, and webhosting—SK EarthLink and some other business lines not included)	5.3	[November 6, 2006] SEC 10-Q	5.7%
7	BellSouth (DSL only)	3.4	[November 1, 2006] SEC 10-Q	3.7%
8	United Online (counting paid access only)	2.4	[November 9, 2006] SEC 10-Q	2.6%
9	Charter (cable broadband)	2.3	[October 31, 2006] SEC 10-Q	2.5%
10	Qwest (DSL only)	2.0	[October 31, 2006] Press Release [.xls]	2.1%
11	Cablevision (cable broadband)	2.0	[November 8, 2006] Press Release [.pdf]	2.1%
12	Embarq (DSL only, formerly part of Sprint)	.93	[November 13, 2006] SEC 10-Q	1.0%
13	Windstream (DSL only, formerly ALLTEL and Valor)	.60	[November 9, 2006] Press Release	0.6%
14	Insight BB (cable broadband)	.58	[November 9, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.6%
15	Mediacom (cable broadband, dialup, and SMB broadband)	.54	[November 7, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.6%
16	Covad (broadband only)	.53	[November 3, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.6%
17	Citizens (DSL only)	.36	[November 7, 2006] Press Release	0.4%
18	CenturyTel (DSL only)	.34	[November 7, 2006] Press Release [.pdf]	0.4%
19	Hughes DIRECWAY (satellite broadband)	.26	Jupiter Research estimate	0.3%
20	LocalNet (dialup)	.26	ISP-Planet article (reconfirmed by e-mail on December 5, 2006)	0.3%
21	Cincinnati Bell (DSL only)	.19	[November 8, 2006] SEC 10-Q	0.2%
22	First Communications (DSL and BPL and dialup, both business and residential)	.12	[undated] Company website	0.1%
23	Other U.S. ISPs	23.5		25.2%

We use Jupiter Research estimates in several areas (note, Jupiter Research is now part of JupiterKagan). Jupiter Research estimates the total number of subscribers in the United States to be 84.3 million subscribers at the end of Q3. Note, however, that superior data is available to Jupiter Research subscribers.

This number does not include: subscribers at universities in government. It includes residential consumer accounts and some business accounts (the distinction is eroding as residential broadband speeds rise and telework grows).

About data concerning certain ISPs
We 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, given Road Runner and Comcast each a sharply accelerated quarter, with growth of 17.7 percent over the previous quarter. In effect, we add Adelphia back into our listings, as part of each of the two companies. We suspect that the actual number of subscribers gained is far less than the number of subscribers the two companies thought they'd bought, and do not know whether the discrepancy is due to a poorly managed transition or fraud at Adelphia.

Similarly, ALLTEL is now part of Windstream, formerly known as Valor.

CenturyTel disclosed dialup subscribers for Q4, 2005, when they were 30 percent of the total, but failed to declare them for the most recent quarter.

Cincinatti Bell's fiber is being bought by Level 3.

We add First Communications to our list, which owns part of former CoreComm (as does LocalNet).

Covad reported 469,900 wholesale DSL and T-1 lines and 76,600 direct sale DSL and T-1 lines. It did not report dialup. For the previous quarter, we had data only for wholesale.

Off the list
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.

Cox has gone private and no longer reports numbers. We have removed it from the list.

GCI (of Alaska) fell off the list, but we expect it to grow back.

Methodology
Subscriber counts are as of September 30, 2005, except for 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.

Also see page 2: How We Count >