Top ISPs By Subscriber > Dead end

Dead end

I knew AOL was losing subscribers quickly, but a 2 million drop in 1 qtr says AOL is bleeding so quickly that by this time next year they will be down to 3rd or 4th on the list.

Fix the clot! Fix the clot! CLEAR lol

reply to fAcEtIOUs

According to their methodology blurb they didn't count BellSouth, either, since BS didn't report. It doesn't look like BS's numbers are in the SBC numbers. Hard to tell since they did not gather the information themselves and make a lot of assumptions about it.

NetZero = United Online, by the way.

Many of those AOL folks are probably using it for backup or on -the-road access and are double-counted with a broadband ISP which does not offer such dialup access as a perk (most cable ISPs, for instance).
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Toolmaster of La Grange.

reply to RadioDoc

We try not to count any subscriber twice. For example, a subscriber to EarthLink DSL may also be counted in Covad's DSL numbers and in the ILEC's DSL numbers as well. We therefore do not count EarthLink and Covad broadband towards our total.

We assume that 20 percent of AOL's subscriber base obtains access through another ISP, either as BYOA, or in a more traditional broadband arrangement. As AOL and Road Runner work together more and more, we expect the subscriber bases to overlap more than they do today, and hope that AOL, which is very good about disclosure, will reveal the extent of the subscriber overlap.

This leaves us with the following unique subscriber numbers:

reply to BF69

reply to fAcEtIOUs
And if you look at where they were in Q4 2005, you'll see that they've lost almost 6.3 million subscribers in the past year. In that time, Comcast added 2 million.

Back in May of last year, I made a prediction that in 3 years AOL would no longer be the biggest ISP anymore. I would like to revise that prediction. I think AOL will fall from the #1 spot by Q2 of this year. Q3 at the latest. (There's even a good chance that the Q1 results will show them to be in the #2 spot.)

reply to BF69

quote:

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Wouldn't Bellsouth's numbers be counted as AT&Ts?

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reply to fAcEtIOUs
Yeah, I saw that chart. Made me suspicious with Earthlink showing zero subs. Methinks they have more than 100,000 direct accounts.

They've also used the Q3 SBC number there instead of their Q4, and something is wrong with the Embarq number, too. The whole thing seems kind of sloppy.

BS's three million plus subscriber base is not counted here since they did not report, says so right there on the page. If you add those to SBC's they're neck-and-neck with Comcast.
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Toolmaster of La Grange.

reply to fAcEtIOUs
Why would people use a back up dial up at $9.95 with another ISP when with DSL (through AT&T at least) you get unlimited dial access?

reply to RadioDoc
They didn't/couldn't count the AT&T Worldnet accounts, either dial up or DSL, in the SBC totals. SBC only reports their broadband totals. I suspect that there are at least 100 to 300K Worldnet subscribers after deducting the BYOA accounts.

Bellsouth had 3.6M DSL lines at the end of '06 according to the AT&T Q4 conference call.

reply to fAcEtIOUs

reply to RadioDoc

reply to fAcEtIOUs
AOL offers an unlimited account as well. just limited Tech support.

reply to BF69
They have alot of free customers also... I wonder what those numbers are, its probably a pretty large number.

reply to RadioDoc
I believe the Embarq numbers are correct.