Top 21 U.S. ISPs by Subscriber: Q2 2007

Growth was so slow (and non-monopoly business so tough) in Q2 that two ISPs' subscriber losses were greater than the gains of the remainder.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [September 13, 2007]

Rank	ISP	Subs. (millions)	Date & Source	Market Share
1	SBC (AT&T) (business and consumer DSL, ISDN, U-Verse, and satellite)	17.3	[July 24, 2007] Press Release [.pdf]	17.5%
2	Comcast (cable broadband)	12.4	[July 27, 2007] SEC 10-Q	12.6%
3	America Online (all U.S. AOL brand accounts)	10.9	[August 1, 2007] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	11.1%
4	Verizon (FiOS and DSL)	7.7	[July 31, 2007] SEC 10-Q	7.8%
5	Road Runner (cable broadband, business and residential)	7.5	[August 1, 2007] Trending Schedules [.pdf]	7.5%
6	EarthLink (DSL, dialup, cable, satellite, PLC, and webhosting—SK EarthLink and some other business lines not included)	4.3	[August 7, 2007] SEC 10-Q	4.4%
7	Charter (cable broadband)	2.6	[August 2, 2007] SEC 10-Q	2.6%
8	Qwest (DSL only)	2.4	[August 1, 2007] SEC 10-Q	2.4%
9	Cablevision (cable broadband)	2.2	[August 8 2007] SEC 10-Q	2.2%
10	United Online (counting paid access only)	2.0	[August 9, 2007] SEC 10-Q	2.0%
11	Embarq (DSL only, formerly part of Sprint)	1.2	[August 1, 2007] SEC 10-Q	1.2%
12	Windstream (DSL only, formerly ALLTEL and Valor)	.75	[August 8, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.8%
13	Insight BB (cable broadband)	.67	[August 15, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.7%
14	Mediacom (cable broadband, dialup, and SMB broadband)	.61	[August 8, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.6%
15	Covad (broadband only)	.55	[August 2, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.6%
16	CenturyTel (DSL only)	.50	[August 2, 2007] Press Release	0.5%
17	Citizens (DSL only)	.48	[August 1, 2007] Press Release	0.5%
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	First Communications (DSL and BPL and dialup, both business and residential)	.24	[undated] Company website	0.2%
21	Cincinnati Bell (DSL only)	.21	[August 7, 2007] SEC 10-Q	0.2%
22	Other U.S. ISPs	23.8		24.1%

Feedback September 21, 2007
Jay Rolls, Cox VP of technology, points out that although Cox is private, it is still publishing subscriber numbers. As of Q2, 2007, Cox claims 3.5 million broadband customers, which would place it seventh on our list.

A warning about consolidation
The top five ISPs in our list (counting Time Warner twice) have a combined market share of 56.5 percent. The combined market share of ISPs ranked 6 through 21 is 19.4 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 Q2. 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.

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 299,000 subscribers as of June 30, 2007, but does not list numbers for the U.S. alone. If 80 percent of its subscribers were in the U.S., it would have 239,200 U.S. subscribers and would rank 20th on our list.

Methodology
Subscriber counts are as of June 30, 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, which are quite small at this time (with the exception of Clearwire).

We show sources for all numbers.

Also see page 2: How We Count >