Phone, Cable Firms Nab Broadband Subs

NEW YORK As part of its fourth-quarter research notes, the Leichtman Research Group has reported that the top 20 U.S.-based cable and telephone service providers, representing about 95 percent of the market, signed up more than 2.5 million additional broadband subscribers in the third quarter of 2006.

Cable and telephone providers now account for almost 51 million high-speed Internet customers. Cable companies have more than 28 million broadband subscribers, while telephone concerns have close to 23 million DSL and other broadband customers, per LRG.

The