Windstream says the company lost another 16,200 net broadband customers as users flee a network criticized for years for failing to provide next-generation broadband speeds. According to Windstream's latest earnings report, the company lost not only 16,200 subscribers last quarter, but 45,000 customers over the last year. With the losses the telco ended the second quarter with 1.07 million broadband subscribers, down from 1.21 million subscribers one year earlier.
FCC data shows Windstream is one of the worst ISPs in the country at
actually delivering advertised speeds, and our
DSLReports user reviews aren't much better.
But the company has been on a PR tear of late trying to convince the press and public things are getting better. According to Windstream, that improvement will come via "Project Excel," a plan to expand the availability of 50 meg, 75 meg, and 100 meg tiers -- at least to users on shorter loop lengths of quality copper. Speaking on the company's earnings call last week, the telco stated that 23 percent of its customer base can now get access to the ISP's 50 Mbps service tier.
As for the user declines, Windstream CFO Bob Gunderman effectively blamed it on the company's decision to raise rates on standalone broadband.
“Broadband units declined more than expected during the quarter,” Gunderman said during the earnings call. “We implemented a pricing action on our standalone broadband product which resulted in modestly higher churn.”
What none of these telco executives want to publicly admit is they're also being
dominated by cable providers. In the first quarter of this year, for example, the top cable companies added about 1,065,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter, or
99% of the net additions seen by the industry. That is thanks to DSL customers growing weary of last generation speeds, and fleeing to cable providers who are now more likely to be able to actually offer them the now minimum FCC 25 Mbps broadband standard.
