AT&T and Verizon both posted strong broadband numbers in Q4 on the back of their rollout of fiber-based broadband services, according to Strategy Analytics’ latest broadband benchmarking report. In terms of quarterly net new additions, Comcast and Time Warner Cable were pushed into 3rd and 4th place. AT&T took the number one spot with 242k additions, followed by Verizon with 212k. Behind the telcos’ numbers is the story that their next generation access platforms, U-Verse and Fios, are gaining ground at the expense of “legacy” ADSL services, for which subscriptions are in decline. Neither AT&T nor Verizon will confirm how many “fiber” customers previously were existing customers to their own basic ADSL services, but we can assume that they represent a fair proportion of the total. Of course, the term “fiber” is used fairly loosely in the case of both companies. Fios is a true fiber-to-the-home broadband service, although the Fios TV service is delivered over coax. And U-Verse actually uses VDSL technology. In spite of the telcos’ strong Q4 performance, our 2009 forecasts suggest that Comcast will again be the leading broadband provider this year, in terms of new additions, followed by AT&T and Verizon. But we again see a trend towards the fiber based services, and predict that AT&T’s U-Verse will be the fastest growing service in 2009 if seen in isolation from the overall AT&T broadband operation. Twitter: twitter.com/DavidMercer_SA Client Reading: Broadband Service Provider Performance Benchmarking: North America Q4 2008