InternetCable companies stole telcos' lunch in 2Q (AP)

AP - Phone companies have been feeling the heat from cable companies for years, as those traditional TV providers have expanded their own phone services and fought hard for broadband Internet subscribers.

NEW YORK - Phone companies have been feeling the heat from cable companies for years, as those traditional TV providers have expanded their own phone services and fought hard for broadband Internet subscribers. But in the just-ended quarter, that heat appears to have reached the intensity of a blowtorch, with the telcos losing out in both voice and broadband service. "Cable is taking share, and it is taking it in gulps," said telecom analyst Craig Moffett at Sanford Bernstein. Looking at most of the large cable companies and the largest telephone companies, he calculated that the cable side got 80 percent of new broadband subscribers in the second quarter. Usually, cable's share has been around 50 percent. This is particularly worrisome for phone companies, because for years, they've been compensating for a falloff in landline phone subscribers by the addition of broadband. If the cable companies get the broadband business too, there's not much left to cheer in the fixed-line phone business. "The telcos' wired businesses suddenly look not only like they are weakening ... they look like they are positively collapsing," Moffett wrote in a research report. AT&T Inc., the country's largest phone company, added 46,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter that ended June 30, far below the results of recent years. It added 400,000 in the same quarter a year ago. Verizon Communications Inc., the second-largest... [ Read more on www.yahoo.com ]

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