Last week there was some concern that bell DSL numbers were down and the telcos were experiencing market saturation as they quickly gobbled up the nation's remaining dial-up users. Not so, according to Telephony On-line, who reports that DSL additions were up 17% from the second quarter. AT&T, BellSouth, Qwest and Verizon collectively added 1,179,000 new subscribers during the third quarter. The numbers are however less impressive than Q3 2005 additions.

The piece also notes subscribers are opting for faster connections. AT&T claims that 42% of its DSL lines are faster than 1.5Mbps, up from 22% a year ago. BellSouth says that 31% of their customers have connections of 3Mbps or faster, up from 16% a year ago. Qwest likewise says that the majority of their customers are opting for faster connections.