You were probably pretty happy when DSL made its way into your home, but now it looks like it's taking a back seat to faster, more modern alternatives. It's that time of year when lots of companies release their earnings, and a look at Verizon, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable's results shows that many are moving on from the phone line-based service to faster options. Verizon reports that it lost 103,000 DSL customers last month for a total loss of 457,000 year over year. Meanwhile, the telecom gained a total of 735,000 users on its faster FiOS internet service last year. It's a similar picture for AT&T: the company parted ways with 636,000 DSL customers last quarter, but gained 587,000 U-verse internet users. Time Warner Cable's numbers show that people are picking up cable internet service as well: it gained 130,000 internet users last quarter alone.

This all makes plenty of sense as more and more people stream videos and generally need more bandwith. However, these high-speed cable and fiber services are only available for users in highly populated areas — DSL remains the best option for many in the rural US. It's safe to assume that DSL services are going to stagnate as Verizon and AT&T focus their resources on their fiber networks and on making deals to improve and build their wireless LTE services. However, there's good news for the future: FCC rulings and partnerships should ultimately bring LTE to these areas, which is a faster technology anyway.