During the third quarter of the year, the number of U.S. broadband subscribers increased by more than 700,000 according to recent research by the Leichtman Research Group.

The study found that the country’s top 17 broadband providers collectively service 86.6 million customers—or about 94 percent of the market. Cable companies, which together improved their lead over telecom companies during the quarter, now service 51.2 million customers compared to telecom’s 35.4 million.

Some highlights from the research are as follows:

• Growth during Q3 2014 was 135 percent higher than it was during Q3 2013.
• Large companies accounted for 83 percent of new subscribers (580,000).
• Year to date, there’s been 2.9 million new broadband subscribers compared to 2.5 million in 2013.

“Despite there being 86.6 million broadband subscribers in the U.S. via major cable and telco providers, the industry has added subscribers at a faster pace over the past year than it did over the prior year,” explains Bruce Leicthman, president of the firm conducting the study.

So what do the numbers mean? That even as more companies begin to enter the broadband market, cable providers still seem to have an advantage when it comes to selling the product to their customers. In other words, cable still has the best overall platform when it comes to delivering broadband in the United States.

As high-speed Internet connections become even more prominent in our lives, we can expect to see an increasing number of broadband customers flock to broadband in the coming months and years. Because of the prominence of many cable companies and the sophisticated infrastructure they already have in place, these providers are likely to absorb the bulk of that customer influx.