Comcast (CMCSA) had a break-out quarter. Net income rose 80% to $837 million. Revenue moved up 32% to $7.4 billion.

Internet subscriptions rose 563,000, and VoIP customers moved up by 571,000, "nearly two-and-half times the subscriber additions a year earlier", as The Wall Street Journal pointed out.

Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) have tried to make the case to Wall St. that there new fiber-to-the-home initiatives will allow them to take TV customers from cable. But, the final build-out of those systems is at least two years away and there is no guarantee that they will work. In the meantime, Comcast is taking their landline customers at a breath-taking rate.

Douglas A. McIntyre