DSL Wins Subscribers but Lags in User Revenue. Cable modem service ARPU beats DSL service ARPU by $7

Parks: DSL service providers have reversed their fortunes in new subscribers, averaging in the past 12 months 200,000 more new accounts per quarter than their cable counterparts, but they have sacrificed revenues to do so.

The report found that starting in the second quarter of 2005, DSL service providers averaged 1.4 million new subscribers over a period of four quarters, while cable providers averaged 1.2 million new subscribers. This finding reverses the trend from the previous four quarters, when cable operators led new-subscriber growth by the same margin of 200,000.

This strong growth in DSL services is not without its cost. The ARPU (average revenue per user) for DSL services was $34 in the first quarter of 2006, compared with $41 for cable modem services. The highest variance was $18, between the DSL service provider with the lowest ARPU and the cable operator with the highest ARPU.

For the next few quarters, DSL service providers will continue to lead in new-subscriber growth . Our Q1 2006 consumer data show that among people intending to subscribe to broadband, 48% prefer DSL services and only 18% prefer cable modem services. Nevertheless, being a price leader may work in the short run, but in the long term, DSL service providers need to create appealing multiplay service bundles. Cable operators have leveraged their bundling strategies to conceal broadband price differentials and maintain strong subscriber growth while keeping a consistent ARPU and low churn rate.

Broadband Market Updates: Beyond Bandwidth Publ 20060601