A new report from Leichtman Research Group says that 2005 was a record year for the twenty largest U.S. cable and DSL providers—making up 94 percent of the market—who together signed on a net of more than 9.6 million new subscribers.

According to the report, that exceeds 2004’s record by more than 1 million subscribers.

Price competition among DSL subscribers helped grow that segment of the market especially, the report says.

The top DSL providers during 2005 were: SBC, Verizon, Bell South, Qwest, Sprint, Covad, ALLTEL, Century Tel, and Cincinnati Bell.

Those providers netted 53 percent of broadband additions during 2005, adding over 5.2 million subscribers to their rolls.

Additionally, “The fourth quarter of 2005 was the best quarter ever for DSL providers, adding nearly 1.5 million net additional DSL subscribers, capturing 57 percent of the net 2.64 million high-speed Internet additions for the quarter. Cable operators added virtually the same number of subscribers during the quarter as a year ago, while DSL providers added about 350,000 more subscribers than in the fourth quarter of 2004,” the report said.