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Comcast Having Success in Luring DSL Customers
15 Feb, 2008
Comcast reported their fourth quarter 2007 results on Wednesday, and among the typical “we had a fantastic quarter” rhetoric, there was interesting insight on DSL conversions. Comcast reported that 64% of their net new cable modem customers were defectors from DSL competitors. To counter DSL’s “value pricing,” Comcast instituted an “economy tier” for cable modem. The $24.95/month economy tier more closely resembles common DSL pricing. The strategy appears to be having an impact, now accounting for over half of their new cable modem subscribers, and at the expense of their telco competitors. Comcast ended 2007 with 13.2 million cable modem subscribers, representing a 27% penetration of homes passed.
Other interesting news beyond the financials reported by Comcast includes their continuing commitment to DOCSIS 3.0. They intend to have 20% of their footprint migrated to it by the end of 2008. The main implication of DOCSIS 3.0 is dramatically higher broadband speeds, approaching 100 Mbps. It’s Comcast’s answer to Verizon FiOS.
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Time to Prepare for DOCSIS 3.0 is Now
07 Aug, 2008
Second quarter results for broadband growth were a tad underwhelming. There are any number of factors which probably contributed to this slowdown, with the economic slowdown and housing crisis certainly towards the top of the list. But growth is also slowing because broadband penetration has grown considerably over the past few years, now ranging somewhere between 50% to 60% (depending on who you ask), and is beginning to slow down. There certainly is more room for growth, but at some point in the near future, broadband penetration will slow even more as it approaches saturation. It’s anyone’s guess what saturation is, but I would bet somewhere around 75% penetration of households (as a national average - individual markets will vary widely). From a service provider’s point of view, that suggests that posting continuing net adds of broadband customers will increasingly involve convincing a competitor's broadband customer base to switch service.