By Sean Buckley
CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream - three service providers that are in the middle of the wireline ILEC pack - will see broadband fortunes start to turn slightly in the first quarter with a smaller amount of subscriber losses.
While these service providers won't report their first quarter earnings until later this month and in May, the ILEC industry segment has continued to trail the cable industry, which has consistently added subscribers for the past several quarters. Cable continues to enjoy a nice lead in the broadband addition race, a factor related to MSOs' ongoing DOCSIS 3.1 build-outs. That trend will likely be seen in the first quarter results.