The race between cable Internet service providers Road Runner and Excite@Home got a little more interesting on Wednesday with both companies touting their milestone achievements.
On the heels of this morning’s announcement by Road Runner it had reached
one million customers, Excite@Home trumped that with
its announcement it had reached two million subscribers.
Both are running in a fairly open field right now, as the two services are
one of the few practicing cable ISPs in the U.S. market, which puts them in
an enviable position. As the other ISPs scramble to catch up, the two will
have gobbled up a majority of the market.
Both cable ISPs have experienced a tremendous surge in subscribers this
year, but Excite@Home has pulled head-and-shoulders ahead of Road Runner
and expects to stay there.
Vice Hancock, Excite@Home public relations manager of broadband products,
said his company has seen the potential growth possible with cable Internet.
“It’s not surprising there are so many people signing up for broadband
services,” Hancock said. “Broadband is just now catching on and people are
rushing to sign up for our services.”
In January, Hancock said, the company predicted to investors it would reach
three million customers by the end of the year. At 1,150,000 subscribers,
when the prediction was made, it seemed like a tall order. But surpassing
the two million mark, in addition to making the ISP the sixth largest
in the U.S., puts them on pace for three million if the trend continues.
George Bell, Excite@Home chairman and chief executive officer, said it’s a
combination of demand and content offering that makes cable Internet so
attractive.
“Clearly consumers want a high-speed, always-on Internet connection through
which to experience content and communications service in our optimized
environment,” Bell said. “Our cable partners have been instrumental in
helping us to achieve this milestone through their efforts at system
upgrades and customer installations. Subscriber numbers will continue to
explode as people increasingly realize the benefits of a fast, always-on
connection couple with rich, personalized content.”
Excite@Home is owned by AT&T Corp., which
also has part ownership in Road Runner through its ownership of Media One.
Road Runner is looking to keep the one million customers it has gathered
with expanded content to its service. Wednesday’s announcement comes on
the heels of its expanded commitment with theglobe.com portal site to provide “community” resources for people to chat and play games online for another
year.
As Internet connectivity becomes more and more ubiquitous, service
providers are looking to ways to keep the customers it already has
subscribed to its service. Compelling content, in addition to customer
support, is one of the major reasons for subscriber happiness with a
provider, reports show.
Bill Gordon, Road Runner president, said the first million is a good
milestone but only the first of many milestones, and content is the key to
that success.
“It is truly exciting to see Road Runner reach this tremendous milestone,”
Gordon said. “It is a testament to the talent and commitment of every
employee who has contributed to the growth and development of Road Runner’s
world-class high-speed network, compelling content offerings and
best-in-class customer care. It is also an example of our affiliates’
commitment to blazing a broadband trail in markets across the nation. The
pride we feel in achieving this goal is matched only by our drive to
continue to deliver the
best products and services that broadband has to
offer, to this million and the millions to follow.”
To meet the increased bandwidth cable Internet users are expected to
consume, Road Runner has been making major overhauls to its backbone for
the past year. Reports of service cutoffs have already plagued the company
this year as more and more people sign on for service on a backbone
intended originally for television cable.
The company’s current backbone running with OC-3, OC-12 and OC-48 capacity,
depending on which part of the country you’re in, is expected to run at
OC-48 nationwide by the end of the year. By the end of 2001, it’s
promising OC-192 capacity.
Road Runner is the culmination of a joint venture in 1998 of Time Warner, Inc.
, Microsoft Corp.
, Compaq Computer
Corp. and Advance/Newhouse.
