ISPs Add Rural Broadband Customers at Double-digit Pace
Posted by Dave Lowe on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 · 
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According to comScore, a regional consultancy located in Reston, Virginia, regional ISPs have been adding rural broadband customers in the U.S. at double-digit growth rates over the past year. It seems like these regional ISPs have focused their efforts in rural markets in anticipation of larger carriers ultimately reaching near-capacity penetration rates in urban and suburban markets; leaving only rural markets for future growth – a trend not without historical precident. Further, and for the most part, these regional ISPs have facilitated this growth without the aid of government provided stimulus funds.
“Although rural markets have witnessed significant increases in broadband penetration during the past few years, these areas still lag behind the penetration rates of metropolitan areas. As the primary drivers of rural broadband growth, regional ISPs have the opportunity to increase their market share by delivering broadband to the millions of households still relying on dial-up services.”, said Brian Jurutka, comScore senior vice president.
Leading the group of regional ISPs who are reaching double-digit growth during the last year in rural markets is TDS Telecom located in Maine at 101% increases from the first quarter in 2009 as compared to the last quarter of 2009. TDS is followed by Windstream Communications in Arkansas, with a 57% increase for the same period. Frontier Communications located in Nebraska, Idaho and Alabama had subscriber increases of 28%, 27% and 26% respectively for the same time period.
Consumer demand for bandwidth intensive applications like streaming video and peer-to-peer file sharing appear to be driving broadband adoption in rural areas; not unlike as seen in urban and suburban settings.
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