Comcast has huge earnings in Q3

Comcast has announced very impressive numbers for Q3 2006. The primary improvements seem to have come from their increasing sales of high-speed internet customers. The rate of customer acquisition has been very impressive. Comcast say a 22 percent to $1.4 billion in sales of their high-speed internet access services, as the number of subscribers soared 20 percent. Comcast now has 11 million broadband customers.

Driving the gains, according to Moffett, is Comcast's digital voice service, available at prices below many of the traditional phone companies. Comcast has been offering its "triple play" package that includes cable TV, high-speed Internet and voice service for just $99 a month. As a result, some customers who had fled Comcast and other cable companies for low-priced DSL Internet service from the phone companies are now switching back. "In essence, they chose DSL over cable to save $10 on broadband, and now they're switching back to save $20 on phone," Moffett wrote. Moffett also noted that many customers see DSL -- which is slower than the typical cable modem -- as an interim step in the transition from dial-up to cable Internet. "If so, cable operators like Comcast may regain share imply by waiting," he wrote.

The story should come as no surprise to any of our readers, who have watched with interest as dialup sales declined, and true broadband supremacy took place. The techniques have been the ones used by most telephony companies: market to the customer's greed by giving them discounts on bundled services. So far it appears to be working great. Profits for the quarter were a hefty $1.22 billion, before certain adjustments.