Top 21 U.S. ISPs by Subscriber: Q1 2007

AOL is dethroned as not one but two ISPs surpass it (the champion duopolists). However, Time Warner is listed twice on our list.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [July 16, 2007]

Rank	ISP	Subs. (millions)	Date & Source	Market Share
1	SBC (AT&T) (business and consumer DSL, plus U-Verse and satellite)	17.0	[April 24, 2007] Press Release [.xls]	17.0%
2	Comcast (cable broadband)	12.1	[April 27, 2007] SEC 10-Q	12.1%
3	America Online (all U.S. AOL brand accounts)	11.9	[May 2, 2007] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	12.0%
4	Verizon (FiOS and DSL)	7.4	[May 4, 2007] Press Release	7.4%
5	Road Runner (cable broadband)	7.3	[May 2, 2007] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	7.3%
6	EarthLink (DSL, dialup, cable, satellite, PLC, and webhosting—SK EarthLink and some other business lines not included)	5.3	[May 7, 2007] SEC 10-Q	5.3%
7	Charter (cable broadband)	2.5	[May 3, 2007] SEC 10-Q	2.5%
8	Qwest (DSL only)	2.3	[May 1, 2007] SEC 10-Q	2.3%
9	United Online (counting paid access only)	2.2	[May 3, 2007] SEC 10-Q	2.2%
10	Cablevision (cable broadband)	2.1	[May 10 2007] SEC 10-Q	2.1%
11	Embarq (DSL only, formerly part of Sprint)	1.1	[May 2, 2007] SEC 10-Q	1.1%
12	Windstream (DSL only, formerly ALLTEL and Valor)	.72	[May 10, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.7%
13	Insight BB (cable broadband)	.66	[May 15, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.7%
14	Mediacom (cable broadband, dialup, and SMB broadband)	.60	[May 10, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.6%
15	Covad (broadband only)	.52	[May 7, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.5%
16	Citizens (DSL only)	.46	[May 2, 2007] Press Release	0.5%
17	CenturyTel (DSL only)	.41	[May 2, 2007] Press Release	0.4%
18	Hughes DIRECWAY (satellite broadband)	.26	Jupiter Research estimate	0.3%
19	LocalNet (dialup)	.26	ISP-Planet article (reconfirmed by e-mail on June 28, 2007)	0.3%
20	Cincinnati Bell (DSL only)	.21	[May 10, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.2%
21	First Communications (DSL and BPL and dialup, both business and residential)	.20	[undated] Company website	0.2%
22	Other U.S. ISPs	24.3		24.4%

A warning about consolidation
The top six ISPs in our list (counting Time Warner twice) have a combined market share of 61.1 percent. The combined market share of ISPs ranked 7 through 21 is 14.5 percent.

A few corporations are consolidating their control over the internet (or, as Bob Frankston would prefer I write, consolidating control over IP transit).

Data
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 91.7 million subscribers at the end of Q1. Note, however, that superior data is available to Jupiter Research subscribers.

This number does not include: subscribers at universities and 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.

Adelphia has been acquired by Time Warner and Comcast.

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

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

AT&T finally added the subscriber numbers for BellSouth, giving it an apparent quarterly growth rate of 99.1 percent. That's growth through acquisition, not organic growth.

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.

Clearwire claims it had "206,200 customers as of December 2006" in "the United States and abroad" but does not list numbers for the U.S. alone.

Methodology
Subscriber counts are as of March 31, 2007, 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 several key ISPs, such as Cox and MSN. Therefore, the "Other ISPs" listing overstates the role of the independent ISP in the U.S. market.

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.

Tim Sanders of The Final Mile is collecting data on fixed wireless broadband ISPs, all of which are quite small at this time.

We show sources for all numbers.

Also see page 2: How We Count >