Excite@Home Surpasses 2 Million Broadband Subscribers
Milestone Validates Broadband as a Mainstream Consumer Service
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), the leader in broadband, today announced that the company surpassed the two million-subscriber mark for the high-speed, always-on @Home(SM) service. Excite@Home is the first company to achieve this milestone. This figure does not include subscribers to be contributed by chello broadband to Excite Chello, the formation of which was announced in July. The announcement also underscores strong growth momentum for broadband access and its emergence as a mainstream service for consumers.
"Clearly consumers want a high-speed, always-on Internet connection through which to experience content and communication services in our optimized environment. This rapid subscriber growth reinforces the strength of the broadband market, which will only gain momentum in the coming years," said George Bell, chairman and CEO, Excite@Home. "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 coupled with rich, personalized content."
Broadband on the Rise
In September 1996, when the @Home service launched in its first market, few consumers had ever heard of broadband. The market has since then exploded. In 1997, there were fewer than 200,000 broadband subscribers worldwide (source: MultiMedia Telecommunications Association). That figure is projected to jump to 4.4 million by the end of 2000 -- representing 22 times growth (source: eMarketer). Analysts predict that the there will be 13 million broadband users by the end of 2002 (source: eMarketer).
While it took nearly four years for the Excite@Home service to sign up one million subscribers (in December 1999), consumers have rapidly embraced the advantages of broadband, such that the next one million subscribers were added in about eight months. Excite@Home continues to target three million total subscribers by year end 2000, excluding subscribers to be added through the Excite Chello transaction. The combination of media with connectivity has proven to be popular with consumers -- broadband page views have more than doubled since the launch of the Excite(SM) broadband portal.
Excite@Home continues to rank first in total North American broadband and eighth in total subscribers when measured against dial-up ISPs (source: Jefferies and Company). In markets where the service is available, @Home routinely becomes the #2 ISP within two years of launch.
About Excite@Home
Excite@Home is the leader in broadband, offering residential and commercial broadband services, with a global footprint of 105(A) million homes under long-term cable and DSL contract. Excite@Home offers consumers broadband services over cable-modem, DSL and other "last-mile" connections and businesses high-speed commercial services. Excite@Home has over 30(A) million cable franchise homes under contract outside of North America and localized versions of the Excite service in 10 leading international markets.
This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbors created by those sections. These forward-looking statements include statements relating to the future subscriber acquisition, growth of the market for Internet access services, acceptance and use of such functionality, services and content. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, including the growth of the consumer Internet access market, Excite@Home's ability to achieve subscriber growth goals; agreements with and dependence on the actions of our cable partners; ability of our cable partners to meet consumer demand for installation of service, and ability to continue to attract traffic to our Web sites. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties described in Excite@Home's filings with the SEC. Excite@Home assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
(A) Effective upon the closing of Excite chello.
NOTE: Excite@Home, @Home, Excite and the stylized logo are trademarks of At Home Corporation and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other brand names are trademarks of their respective owners.