Verizon, SBC, BellSouth Post Record DSL Adds.
In the first quarter of 2004, Verizon
Communications, SBC Communications and BellSouth each delivered
another record-setting quarter for DSL customer additions.
Verizon boosted its first quarter DSL additions 70% over Q4 2003
to 345,000. At the end of Q1, Verizon counted 2.66 million DSL
subscribers.
SBC topped the 400K mark in a quarter for the
first time with 446,000 net adds in Q1, up 18.3% from its strong
fourth quarter performance. The company finished Q1 with 3.97
million DSL customers. SBC said 50% of its residential telephone
customers purchased a second service from the company, either
DSL, Cingular Wireless or SBC/DISH Network satellite TV.
BellSouth did even better, boosting its quarterly
DSL additions by 23.8% in Q1 to a record 156,000, for a total of
1.6 million customers at quarter-end. Taking a swipe at recent
cable modem service speed increases, BellSouth also announced
its own broadband speed boost. The company launched a 3-Mbps
residential DSL service in April priced at $44.95 per month, the
same as most comparable cable offerings.
