Comcast the top leader in new broadband customers in 2010

Comcast was the leader in adding new broadband customers for 2010.  In fact, they added one fourth of all the new customers industry-wide.

That comes to a shade more than one million new customers.  The industry total is a net four million new broadband subscribers added.

Interestingly, it is the same amount of new customers that were added in 2009.  Strategy Analytics released the report on the dynamics of the broadband market.

They are saying that with 65% of the households in the US using broadband, a plateau effect is observed.

DSL usage is declining as more cost-effective and faster data access is made available by the broadband industry.  Particularly in these unique economic times, broadband companies are competing for users that are being aware and at times downright frugal.  They are demanding better services at a lower cost.

Some broadband customers are planning to switch services when their current providers start capping data usage.  Comcast has not announced data caps at the moment and will probably gain some customers from AT&T and others that cap the data usage.

AT&T says only 2% of it’s customers will be affected by the caps.  Still 2% of AT&T’s broadband customers is a really big number.

Additionally there is the issue of how customers identify caps with a slower service, whether the speed reduction is real or perceived.  Some customers will look at a cost increase as a result of the cap.

Do you think Comcast will gain AT&T customers over the data caps?