Cable's U.S. high-speed service market share could slip to 57 percent by year-end and could continue to dip over the next five years, as telcos continue to sacrifice margins with deep price cuts, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.

The research firm noted that cable's market share fell from 62 percent to 59 percent last year, while telco share grew from 39 percent to 41 percent.

"Even as they race to launch new services, such as IP-based TV, SBC, Verizon and other telcos are using aggressive price cuts to maintain subscriber growth in DSL," said James Penhune, director of the Strategy Analytics' Broadband Media & Communications research program. "But the competitive race between cable and DSL will remain neck-and-neck through 2005 as top cable operators such as Comcast, Time Warner and Cablevision roll out Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) services to target telco customers."

Strategy Analytics predicts 78 million U.S. broadband subs by 2010, with about half going to cable.