Today's Top Stories AT&T (NYSE: T) has provided a bit more clarity about its 1 Gbps fiber to the home (FTTH) launch, announcing that the service will be available in "mid 2014" in parts of Austin, where it will challenge Google Fiber (Nasdaq: GOOG). The service provider still has yet to reveal pricing. According to a Broadband DSL Reports article, a recent issue on their U-verse GigaPower site suggested that the 300 Mbps tier would cost eligible customers $200 a month. However, an AT&T spokeswoman told FierceTelecom in an e-mail that they are not ready to talk about pricing yet, adding that there is "more to come." When the 300 Mbps FTTH speed tier debuts in December it will initially be available in parts of central, northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast Austin and city neighborhoods like French Place, Mueller, Zilker and Onion Creek. Customers will be able to upgrade to the 1 Gbps tier for no extra cost. Next year, the telco plans to expand the U-verse GigaPower service to other residential and small businesses. AT&T said that Austin residents and SMBs can vote to get them to bring GigaPower to their neighborhood at the www.att.com/austinfiber site. "These votes are helping us identify where the need for speed and advanced TV services is the greatest and will help guide our future GigaPower expansion plans," said Dahna Hull, vice president and general manager, Austin, AT&T Services Inc., in a release. While it has yet to reveal any other cities for FTTH, Randall Stephenson, AT&T's chairman, CEO and president, has intimated that they could offer it in other locations. During the Goldman Sachs 22nd Annual Communacopia Conference in September, he said that improvements in deployment costs and more cooperation from local municipalities is making it easier for them to consider equipping other communities with FTTH. Outside of Austin, the telco continues to expand the availability of its 45 Mbps DSL service throughout its 22-state footprint. John Stephens, CFO of AT&T, said during the Q3 earnings call that the 45 Mbps tier is available in "every region to almost two-thirds of our U-verse base," adding that "we are moving ahead with plans for 75 Mbps and faster." For more:
- see the release Special report: AT&T's $14B Project VIP: breaking out the business service, U-verse numbers
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AT&T starts rolling out its Austin FTTH network
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AT&T responds to Google Fiber with its own 1 Gbps plan for Austin
AT&T to extend wireline IP network to 57M customer locations Read more about: AT&T, U-verse
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HickoryTech's (Nasdaq: HTCO) fiber & data segment continues to be a major driver for the regional telco, rising 8 percent year-over-year to $17 million. Similar to previous quarters, the telco attributes the growth in this segment to an uptick in sales within its business and wholesale services as well as nine months of Fargo operations from its acquisition of Enventis. The service provider said that year-to-date business services accounts for 56 percent and wholesale services accounts for 44 percent of fiber and data revenue. However, it reported that its net income of $1 million was a 30 percent decline from last year. It saw similar gains in its equipment and telecom segments. In the equipment segment, revenue rose 2 percent year over year to $15.3 million. Within this unit, equipment revenues declined 1 percent year-over-year to $12.8 million, while support services revenue rose 19 percent year-over-year to $2.5 million. Telecom segment revenue was down 1 percent over a year ago to $15.6 million as declines in network access and local voice revenues offset broadband and TV growth. Broadband revenue rose 8 percent to $5.24 million as the telco's DSL and IPTV subscriber base increased by 5 percent and 10 percent, respectively. As of the end of the quarter, it had a total of 20,793 DSL and 11,327 IPTV subscribers. Meanwhile, local service and network access revenues declined to $2.82 million and $4.3 million, respectively. The service provider ended the quarter with a total of 40,466 local voice access lines and 29,001 long-distance customers. This quarter has been a time of transition HickoryTech. It announced in October that it would align all of its services under the Enventis brand. It will ask for shareholder approval to change its corporate name to Enventis Corp. at its shareholder meeting in May 2014. HickoryTech has maintained its previous 2013 revenue guidance to be within a range of a 2 percent decline to a 3 percent increase as compared vs. 2012. The service provider said it expects growth in business services to offset the ongoing declines in legacy Telecom services. Shares of HickoryTech were listed at $13.19 at the end of trading Monday on the Nasdaq stock exchange. For more:
- see the earnings release Earnings summary: Wireline telecom earnings in the third quarter of 2013 Related articles:
HickoryTech to change name to Enventis, establish unified brand
HickoryTech's Enventis wraps up its 430-mile Northern Minnesota middle-mile project
HickoryTech's 11 percent fiber and data segment revenue rise drives quarterly performance
HickoryTech employs Amino set-tops for its IPTV service Read more about: HickoryTech
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FairPoint Communications (Nasdaq: FRP) reported in Q3 2013 that Ethernet services were once again a major contributor to its overall revenue mix, rising to $16.4 million as retail and wholesale circuits grew 57.8 percent year-over-year. The telco expects the uptick in Ethernet product revenue to continue due to demand from both retail and wholesale customers such as regional banks, healthcare networks and wireless operators. It added that the growth in Ethernet, IP-based services, and broadband will "initially offset and then exceed the losses expected from the company's legacy access products like residential voice." Ethernet service sales also drove up its data and Internet services revenue 3.7 percent sequentially to $41.5 million, which FairPoint said was the third consecutive quarter where it saw an increase. Besides Ethernet and IP data, the telco reported that broadband subscribers rose 3 percent year-over-year, to over 9,000 subscribers added during the last year. As of the end of September, broadband penetration reached 36.9 percent of its voice access lines. However, it lost 1,922 broadband subscribers in the third quarter, a factor it attributes to its efforts to improve the credit profile of its customer base. Although legacy voice access lines declined year-over-year, it narrowed those losses to 7.3 percent from 7.7 percent in Q2 2103. It ended the quarter with a total of 895,490 access lines. FairPoint said that the improvement was driven by a "slowdown in the rate of loss in business voice and wholesale access lines." The telco has maintained its fiscal year 2013 guidance of $100 million to $110 million of unlevered free cash flow and adjusted EBITDA of $255 million to $265 million. It also expects capital expenditures to be about $130 million. Shares of FairPoint were $9.55, up 29 cents, or 3.13 percent, in morning trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. For more:
- see the earnings release Earnings summary: Wireline telecom earnings in the third quarter of 2013 Related articles:
FairPoint extends broadband service into 6 Maine towns
FairPoint expands broadband footprint in 6 New Hampshire towns
FairPoint establishes Ethernet service presence in New York City
FairPoint names John Lunny as CTO Read more about: Fairpoint Communications, third quarter earnings 2013
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Birch Communications, a competitive provider focused on the business market, is looking to hire 50 new employees in Q4 2013 to accommodate growth in its retail and wholesale divisions. The service provider said that the majority of the new staff will be added in its existing Macon, Ga., and Emporia, Kan., operations centers. Part of this hiring drive includes more staff for its sales offices in Kentucky and Georgia. "In 2013, we were successful in expanding our overall business, product set, sales channels, IP network and wireless initiatives," said Vincent Oddo, president and CEO of Birch, in a release. "As a result of that growth we are adding staff across our entire platform." This hiring drive comes at a time when the competitive carrier continues to grow organically and through various acquisitions, including its most recent purchase of Ernest Communications. On the organic side, the service provider has been ramping up its wholesale and retail channels. In July, the service provider tapped Greg Hogan, who came to Birch as the result of its acquisition of Ernest Communications, as its director of business development. The service provider also began its first foray into the larger enterprise segment with the launch of its enterprise solutions channel. Like the wholesale operations, the enterprise channel will also be headed up by Paul Masters, who previously served as the president of Ernest Communications. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Birch Communications' wholesale division appoints new director, adds clients
Birch establishes enterprise solutions channel to target multi-site businesses
Birch increases credit capacity to $175M
Birch's Covista acquisition extends its presence into 10 new states
Birch finishes IP network expansion to 290 central offices Read more about: Birch Communications
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C Spire has begun the next stage of building out its statewide fiber to the home (FTTH) network, naming nine Mississippi city and town finalists that will get the 1 Gbps-capable service. The communities that will participate in the initial phase of the broadband build are Batesville, Clinton, Corinth, Hattiesburg, Horn Lake, McComb, Quitman, Ridgeland and Starkville. These nine cities and towns were chosen out of a list of 33 municipalities that submitted applications in October for its "Get Fiber First Challenge." This initiative began in September when it announced a statewide program to provide 1 Gbps FTTH Internet services in the cities and towns that it said "best showcase their passion for securing service that's 100 times faster than national average broadband speeds." It added that it decided to "increase the number of partner communities to nine during the first phase of the initiative." Finalists were announced during a news conference at C Spire headquarters with Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a host of state and local elected officials and representatives from the FTTH Council Americas. During the event, Bryant presented a proclamation declaring Monday, Nov. 4 as "Get Fiber First" and "Gimme Fiber" day in Mississippi. Taking a cue from Google Fiber (Nasdaq: GOOG) and other municipal FTTH providers that offer a 1 Gbps service such as Chattanooga's EPB Fiber, pricing for C Spire's service is competitive. Eligible customers will be able to purchase the 1 Gbps Internet access service for $80 a month, while a combined Internet and home phone package will cost $100 a month. They will also offer an Internet and digital TV bundle for $140 a month and $160 a month for customers that want a voice, video and data triple play bundle. Existing C Spire Wireless customers will get an additional $10 monthly discount on all packages. Similar to Google Fiber, homeowners in each community will be invited to pre-register for service. It said that when a "critical number of neighborhoods have reached their percentage goals in an individual city, C Spire plans to begin construction in those areas." For more:
- see the release Editor's Corner: Has Google Fiber set the pace for 1 Gig FTTH pricing?
Related articles:
C Spire adds 1 Gbps FTTH to its service roster
C Spire to build $20M Southeast data center in Starkville, Miss. Read more about: C Spire
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