Comcast, which recently passed AT&T as the biggest broadband carrier in the United States, is also now the third largest phone company. Once they merge with NBC Universal, the company will be getting even more powerful. In short -- things are going well for the cable giant, and the company's earnings this morning continue the trend. The company posted revenues of $9.07 billion, and $35.7 billion for 2009 -- with $955 million net income for last quarter. Comcast now has 47.1 million broadband, voice and TV customers, and is poised to grow further with a push into Mobile WiMax and Internet video during 2010.
According to Comcast's earnings report, the company lost 199,000 basic cable customers on the quarter. However, they added 410,000 digital video customers, 247,000 broadband customers, and 243,000 digital voice customers on the quarter.
In a statement, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the company will focus on a number of goals for 2010, including finishing their deployment of faster DOCSIS 3.0 technology, as well as offering their Internet video service Xfinity (free to existing Comcast customers but not yet available to customers of other providers) to their entire userbase.
While Comcast notes they're still struggling with a sluggish economy, consumers have traditionally shown that TV service is one of the last things they've trimmed back on. The monthly average total revenue per video customer jumped 6.4% from $111.05 to $118.20, according to Comcast, so apparently the sluggish economy isn't quite that sluggish.
While it's easy to be wary of Comcast's size, Comcast's at least putting money back into the network. The company is already quickly approaching 80% coverage for DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades, while the nation's second largest carrier (Time Warner Cable) has barely managed to upgrade just one. Meanwhile, investment into mobile wireless (which may be
ramping up this year) should give them an edge as the "quadruple play" (voice/broadband/TV/wireless) finally becomes a realistic option.