Today's Top Stories Level 3 Communications' (NYSE: LVLT) wide-reaching fiber network makes it a prime candidate for 100G optical networking, but the service provider is not in a hurry to get there.  | | Patel (Image source: Level 3) | Speaking during its second quarter earnings call, Sunit Patel, CFO of Level 3, said that the sheer amount of fiber it has deployed means it can deliver plenty of bandwidth already. Every consideration it makes for any network upgrade, including 100G, is based on a cost and margin perspective. "The key is we're not fiber constrained like a lot of other people are," he said. "The more fiber constrained you are, the more you have to upgrade to 100 Gig, but we can ride much cheaper on 10 Gig gear so we have more degrees of freedom to light more fiber pairs up." Patel added that when it comes "cost effective we'll deploy it." That's not to say Level 3 isn't a 100G optical advocate. Earlier this year, Level 3 told FierceTelecom it would launch a generally available 100G offering in North America and EMEA in the third quarter this year followed by a formal transatlantic 100G offering in the fourth quarter. In the first half of 2014, it will update its Latin America routes. Early last year, Level 3 launched a 15,000-mile, nationwide 100G network for government and education customers and it is currently serving a few other customers on other 100G network segments. For more:
- hear the earnings webcast (reg req.) Special Report: Wireline telecom earnings in the second quarter of 2013 Related articles:
Google, Level 3 replace AT&T as Starbucks' Internet provider
Level 3 to deliver data center services to Major League Baseball media subsidiary
Level 3's Q1 revenue dips to $1.58 billion on expected government contract disconnects
Level 3 Wholesale hints at 100G service rollout in 2014
Level 3 promotes Jeff Storey to CEO, replacing company founder James Crowe Read more about: 100G
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CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is appealing a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge's ruling that upheld a move by the city of Portland, Ore., to implement a new tax on wireline phone services. Both of Portland's dominant wireline telcos CenturyLink and Frontier (Nasdaq: FTR) are required to pay the city 5 percent of their gross revenues from traditional POTS voice service. Last November, Portland's city council voted to approve the expanded tax, which they said is designed to raise $3-5 million in revenue for mandated police department reforms. In January, CenturyLink filed a lawsuit against the city over the tax. However, in May, a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge ruled against the telco, which has already added the new tax on its customer's monthly phone bills. The city and CenturyLink had different interpretations of how high the new fees would be on customer bills. According to the city, the new charges should be between $3.84 and $9.24 annually, while CenturyLink says the charges will be between $5.52 and $19.44 annually. These new fees come at a time when landline voice service use continues to decline. Consumers in Oregon and throughout the United States are cutting their PSTN line in favor of wireless or VoIP-based services such as Skype or Vonage (NYSE: VG). As of 2011, the state's landline subscriber base was 631,000, down from 1.5 million in 2002. For more:
- The Oregonian has this article Related articles:
CenturyLink sues Portland, Ore. over new wireline phone tax
CenturyLink, Frontier protest Portland, Ore. wireline tax hike Read more about: Frontier Communications
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Lumos Networks (Nasdaq: LMOS) found that its drive to deliver data services continued to bear fruit in Q2 as total strategic data revenue rose to $29.9 million. A key point of growth during the quarter was carrier data services, particularly carrier transport and Fiber to the Tower services, which were $15.1 million. IP-based services, meanwhile, remained slightly flat at $4.78 million. As of the end of the quarter, Lumos had a total of 465 towers connected to its fiber network, up 60 percent sequentially. Over the past year, it has added a total of 287 towers connections to its network. The service provider said it increased its FTTT installation target this year from 550 to 600 and its long-term FTTT target from 1,000 to 1,500. With more wireless operators expanding their 4G wireless deployments in the next few years, Tim Biltz, CEO of Lumos, said during the earnings call that he expects that the number of clients it serves on each tower site will rise. "We have approximately 1.4 tenants per fiber-fed tower and over the next several years we will increase to nearly two tenants per tower," he said. "As data capacity requirements continue to increase we believe that we'll see average monthly rents increase from $1,700 to approximately to $2,000 over the next four to five years." Over the course of the next five years, Lumos expects to continue to grow strategic data services, while seeing ongoing declines in legacy ILEC and CLEC voice revenues. With a key focus on ramping up on-net customers, telco has set a goal to reach annual growth in the mid-teens for its strategic data product segment and generate about 80 percent of total revenue by 2018. By the end of 2018, Lumos expects that legacy voice revenues will represent 10-15 percent, and access 5 percent, of total revenue. A major tenet of driving growth will come from its "edge out" strategy, which it began in Q2 with the buildout of a 100G capable network in Richmond, Va., that will go live in Q3 this year. Biltz said they have already signed five major new customers in the Richmond area and "are now actively marketing for new customers in the market." Overall Q2 revenue was $52.3 million, up year-over-year from $50.8 million in Q2 2012 and sequentially from $52.5 million in Q1 2013. The telco's total adjusted EBITDA was $24.6 million, compared to $21.1 million in Q2 2012 and to $24.7 million in the Q1 2013. Looking forward to Q3 2013, the telco has forecast revenue of about $52 million and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $24 million. For the full year 2013, the company now expects its revenue to be approximately $208 million lower than its prior guidance of $208 to $212 million and adjusted EBITDA to be about $97 million versus prior guidance of $94 to $97 million. "This revenue guidance is at the lower end of original guidance range, while EBITDA is at the high end," said Biltz. "The main reason for being at the low end of our guidance revenue range is the lumpy nature of our carrier data business and the slower progress than I had planned from recognizing revenue from our edge out market initiatives." Shares of Lumos were listed at $18.72, down 23 cents or 1.21 percent in Thursday morning trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. For more:
- see the earnings release
Special Report: Wireline telecom earnings in the second quarter of 2013
Related articles:
Lumos serves up 100G wavelength services
Lumos Networks snags Ethernet contract with HCA Virginia
The rising stars of wireline in 2013
Lumos Networks to build 100G routes in Richmond, Va. metro Read more about: data services, Lumos Networks
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Sasktel is going to double the DSL speeds it delivers from 5 to 10 Mbps in 220 Saskatchewan communities by the end of next year. This latest deployment drive is part of a broader $55.4 million, seven-year program to improve broadband availability in the rural areas it serves. In May, Sasktel announced it would spend $1.45 million to bring broadband DSL to 50 new locations in Saskatchewan. Today, the service provider delivers its DSL service to 416 communities and First Nations. Supporting the upgrade is a new fiber backbone the company will install in North Eastern Saskatchewan. In addition to expanding its rural DSL base, the service provider is rolling out FTTP services, which it began offering to customers in eight of its largest urban centers via its $915 million Next Generation Broadband Access Program. The service provider began offering the FTTP services with data speeds of up to 200/60 Mbps to area businesses and residential customers last August under its infiNET brand. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
SaskTel to bring DSL service to another 50 rural communities
Colba.Net Telecom extends IPTV services to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
SaskTel to spend $55 million to up rural DSL speeds, enhance optical transport Read more about: Broadband, DSL
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EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK) reported in Q2 2013 that business services, a segment that made up 78 percent of its total revenue, dropped only 0.5 percent to $243.3 million. A key driver in the business services segment was its retail business, one that includes MPLS, Hosted VoIP and IT Services, which reached about a $157 million annualized revenue run rate, reflecting what EarthLink said was "an accelerated 22% year-over-year growth rate." EarthLink added that 59 percent of new bookings in Q2 consisted of EarthLink's growth products, up from 46 percent in the same period a year ago. Serving its business customer base will be a growing fiber network and data center footprint. As of the end of June, it completed 85 percent of its fiber network expansion and sold $1.4 million of new annualized revenue on the routes in the quarter. It also completed the rollout of five new data centers in Chicago, Dallas, Rochester, N.Y., San Jose and Miami. The CLEC also saw that its consumer segment performed well in the quarter with broadband services making up 69 percent of its consumer access revenue. It also reduced churn rates to 2.1 percent. Overall company revenue was $313.4 million, down sequentially from $316.8 million in Q3 2013 and $334.5 million in Q2 2012. For the full year 2013, EarthLink has revised its revenue forecast to $1.24 to $1.25 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $214 million to $225 million. Originally, it forecast revenues of $1.24 to $1.26 billion. Shares of EarthLink were listed at $5.82, down 4.5 cents, or 7.22 percent in Thursday morning trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. For more:
- see the earnings release Special Report: Wireline telecom earnings in the second quarter of 2013
Related articles:
EarthLink completes CenterBeam acquisition
EarthLink re-enters wireless as a Clearwire MVNO offering WiMAX
EarthLink bolsters IT services play with $22 million CenterBeam purchase
EarthLink enhances cloud platform with new San Jose data center
EarthLink business services focus helps beat analyst expectations with $320 million in revenue Read more about: Earthlink
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FirstNet review of its policies, hiring process remains front and center 
Wireline telecom earnings in the second quarter of 2013
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