The Bells’ broadband efforts fared better in the third quarter than in the second. AT&T, BellSouth, Qwest Communications and Verizon Communications gained a combined 1,179,000 broadband subscribers in the third quarter, up 17% from the second quarter.

Ken Twist, vice president of technology consulting and broadband networks practices for Ovum-RHK, called those numbers “encouraging,” but added, “The telcos could use a little momentum, because it also appears that the [cable companies] may have [had] a good quarter, based on the Comcast results.”

Comcast added 536,000 high-speed Internet subscribers in the third quarter and 483,000 voice customers. Charter Communications, the country’s fourth largest cable provider, reported 88,100 new high-speed Internet subscribers in the third quarter as well as 82,000 new voice customers.

Consumers are also increasingly opting for higher speeds in their broadband connections, the Bells reported. Forty-two percent of AT&T’s DSL lines are now faster than 1.5 Mb/s, up from 22% a year ago. Thirty-one percent of BellSouth’s DSL subscribers have 3 Mb/s connections or faster, up from 16% a year ago. And the majority of Qwest’s DSL subscribers opt for one of its higher-speed tiers.

Bell companies’ net subscriber additions are perhaps less impressive when compared with year-ago numbers. For example, the 176,000 new DSL subscribers BellSouth gained in the third quarter are down 14% from last year’s third quarter. AT&T’s 374,000 net DSL subscriber additions in the third quarter are down 29% from a year earlier.