U.S. Consumer Narrowband ISP 4Q04 Vendor Shares

This IDC study addresses which Internet service provider (ISP) led the U.S. dial Internet access market at the end of the fourth quarter of 2004. Additionally, IDC identifies the top 10 dial ISPs and their overall market share. Highlights include the following:

AOL continued its dominance of the market for consumer dial Internet access accounts. MSN continued to decline, as it increased its focus on content distribution and deemphasized its ISP business.

"The providers doing well in the market and on IDC's dial market share list are discount ISPs," said Steven Harris, research manager of IDC's ISP Markets research program. "The growth of broadband and the saturation of the total market mean substantial declines for dial Internet access overall."