Today's Top Stories Consolidated Communications reported that a 21 percent rise in Metro Ethernet revenue drove up overall first-quarter 2014 data, video and Internet services revenue to $68.2 million. During the quarter, the service provider added 7,910 data connections, up 3.2 percent, to end the period with a total of 258,244 connections. Another ongoing area of growth was video, where it added 3,313 new subscribers, ending the period with a total of 110,805 subscribers. "Our focus on broadband growth, along with commercial and carrier sales, drove our positive operating and financial results," said Bob Currey, chairman and CEO, in the earnings release. "Metro Ethernet continues to be a leading product with a 21% increase in revenue compared to the first quarter of last year."
However, declines in its traditional ILEC and CLEC voice service business continued in the first quarter. It lost a total of 11,794 ILEC access lines and 5,694 CLEC voice lines to end the quarter with a total of 254,061 and 122,172 lines, respectively. Due to the declines in its legacy voice business, overall company revenues were $149.6 million, down year-over-year from $151.5 million. Consolidated said that decreases in its network access and subsidy revenues were partially offset by growth in data and video revenues. Operations income was $25.9 million, compared with $28.3 million from continuing operations in the first quarter of 2013. The decrease was primarily due to higher video programming costs and increases in sales-related expenses for growth and expansion initiatives. Another milestone Consolidated reached in the quarter was achieving an additional $0.6 million in annualized synergies from the SureWest acquisition. It's also on track to complete the final phase of billing integration in the third quarter of 2014. Looking towards the rest of 2014, the service provider has forecast capital expenditures of $97 million to $103 million, down from $107 million in 2013. Shares of Consolidated were listed at $19.58, down 34 cents or 1.71 percent, in Thursday morning trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. For more:
- see the earnings release Special report: Wireline telecom earnings in the first quarter of 2014 Related articles:
Consolidated's Q4 2013 revenue declines to $148M but ILEC sees uptick in broadband and business data services
Consolidated Communications extends business services into Dallas-Fort Worth
Consolidated's Childers: We're ready to look at other fiber provider acquisitions
Consolidated's metro Ethernet revenue grows 40 percent, sees wireless backhaul gains Read more about: Ilec, first quarter earnings 2014
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AT&T (NYSE: T) has been in discussions with DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) about purchasing the satellite TV provider, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal citing unnamed sources close to the talks. If such a merger were to come to fruition, the combined company would become an even bigger video provider threat to Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) if it successfully completes its acquisition of Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC). DirecTV has about 20 million video customers, while AT&T has nearly 5.7 U-verse TV customers. By comparison, Comcast with TWC would provide service to about 30 million subscribers. An AT&T spokeswoman declined to comment to FierceTelecom on the WSJ report. Such a deal could provide potential benefits for AT&T. AT&T, which has seen its video and broadband services become its two major wireline growth areas, would gain a national video footprint. It would be able to offer various bundles of wireless and video services. U-verse video and broadband continues to be one of AT&T's major wireline revenue drivers. During the first quarter, AT&T reported that it added 634,000 U-verse broadband and 201,000 U-verse TV subscribers, ending the quarter with a total of 11 million and 5.7 million subscribers, respectively. This is not the first time that AT&T has considered acquiring a satellite provider. According to the WSJ report, the service provider has also spoke to Dish Network Corp. and DirecTV about a possible tie-up. But to gain approval of such a deal, sources say that it would have to agree to various concessions like divesting DirecTV subscribers in markets where it already offers U-verse video service. For more:
- The Wall Street Journal has this article (sub. req.) Related articles:
AT&T consumer wireline revenue up 4.3% to $5.7B on strong U-verse video, broadband adds
AT&T, Chernin Group $500M online video pact plays into bandwidth, content hunger
AT&T targets 100 cities for its fiber-based broadband service
AT&T to bring 1 Gbps FTTH service to North Carolina Read more about: Uverse
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Bell Aliant continued to see the fruits of its FibreOP fiber to the home (FTTH)-based broadband and IPTV efforts pay off in the first quarter of 2014 as data revenues grew $22 million, or 8.6 percent, due to an uptick in Internet and TV customer adds. Driven by growth in broadband customers, Internet revenue rose 3.9 percent to $4.5 million year-over-year. During the quarter, the telco added 16,000 new FibreOP Internet customers, ending the quarter with a total of 200,000 subscribers. FibreOP additions include both existing Bell Aliant customers migrating from DSL and fiber to the node (FTTN) networks to the fiber-based serves. These migrations don't contribute to the overall high-speed customer growth, but they do contribute to improved customer retention and growth in overall average revenue per customer (ARPC). Overall, Bell Aliant added a total of 11,000 new high-speed customers during the quarter, up from the same quarter of 2013, bringing total high-speed Internet customers to 963,000 at the end of March 2014. On the IPTV front, revenue grew $11 million, or 43.5 percent, up from the same quarter a year ago, with total IPTV customers of 189,800, up 38.3 percent from a year earlier. FibreOP TV customers grew by 13,400 in the first quarter to reach 171,400, a portion of which were migrations from Bell Aliant's FTTN TV service. Overall net IPTV customer additions were 11,700 in the first quarter of 2014, compared with 14,300 a year earlier. The company reported that other data revenues rose $4.5 million, or 4.9 percent, from the same period a year ago due to higher data networking hardware sales and expansion of Bell Aliant's next-generation network technology, which enabled IP data services growth to offset legacy declines. Per the ongoing wireline industry trend, local and long distance service revenues declined $14 million, or 5.4 percent, and $9.1 million, or 13.4 percent, respectively, compared with the same quarter in 2013, driven largely by NAS declines of 5.6 percent. Interestingly, the company reported that it narrowed both residential and business network access services (NAS). Residential net NAS declines of 23,900 in the first quarter of 2014 improved 2,400 from the same quarter in 2013 with improved performance in both fiber and non-fiber markets, while business net NAS declines were 7,600 in the first quarter of 2014 compared to 5,900 in the first quarter of 2013. From an overall financial perspective, Bell Aliant reported net earnings of $63 million, down $14 million from the same quarter in 2013. It attributed the revenue decrease to lower earnings in Bell Aliant GP, with lower EBITDA and increased restructuring costs compared to the same period a year ago. Shares of Bell Aliant were trading at $27.13, up 13 cents or 0.48 percent, in Thursday morning trading on the stock exchange. For more:
- see the earnings release Special report: Wireline telecom earnings in the first quarter of 2014
Related articles:
Bell Aliant spends $4.3M to bring FTTH service to three new Newfoundland, Labrador locations
Bell Aliant plans Saint John, New Brunswick data center, targets new colocation opportunities
Bell Aliant, Cogeco, others bring fiber to 50 Eastern Ontario business parks
Bell Aliant adds 5 new shows to IPTV-based community TV channel Read more about: FibreOP, first quarter earnings 2014
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Integra has turned to its key optical vendor Ciena and its 6500 converged packet platform to enhance its recently completely optical network route between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. By leveraging Ciena's WaveLogic Photonics capabilities, Integra said it will be able to tailor its services, such as diverse path protection in addition to low latency, for data center, enterprise, government and wholesale carrier application demands along this key network route. One of the benefits that the WaveLogic Photonics enables is it allows Integra to deploy high capacity services across the 1400 km route without regeneration, bypassing numerous huts while reducing latency, power and space requirements. Complementing the capabilities of the 6500 platform, Ciena is also supplying the CLEC its Smart Raman with PinPoint software and OneControl Unified Management System. PinPoint provides rapid turn-up of photonic services and localizing fiber faults, which it claims can accelerate repair times. Integra will use OneControl to ensure that it can meet end-customer service level agreements (SLAs). "With Ciena's WaveLogic Photonics capabilities we now have greater visibility into our network than before, supporting service responsiveness and enhancing our competitive advantage," said Michael Sharpe, senior vice president, operations for Integra. Having these capabilities in place will give Integra further points of differentiation as looks to challenge area incumbents such as CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) for larger business and carrier customers. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Integra secures seat on GSA Region 8 contract
Integra extends fiber reach to 92 data centers
Integra bolsters hosted, managed services with ProTel NetWorks purchase
Integra adopts common Ethernet network architecture
Integra EoC footprint surpasses 460,000 businesses Read more about: Service Lifecycle Management, Photonics Capabilities
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Leverett, Mass., a rural town located in the western part of the state, is taking broadband matters into its own hands with a plan to bring fiber-based services to residents. According to a report in the Valley Advocate, the town's local telco and electrical providers Verizon and Western Mass. Electric are preparing the utility poles to be equipped with fiber cables so Millennium Communications of New Jersey, the project's contractor, can begin building the network. However, Leverett's cable committee is seeking a separate contractor to build two sites to house associated network equipment. "We're in the design and site preparation phase for the two small buildings that will hold the network equipment," said Peter d'Errico, a retired UMass legal studies professor who lives in Leverett and is a member of the town's cable committee. "We have to put that out for bid. At one site there has to be some Conservation Commission oversight because it's near a wetland, but that will be fairly simple, and the construction will shortly be put out for bid." Given the rural and challenging topography, delivering broadband to Leverett has always been a challenge. While Verizon (NYSE: VZ) began offering DSL service in 2008, residents said it did not work well nor did it reach every household. Not surprisingly, the lack of broadband made people think twice about purchasing a home there, while police officers could not conduct daily activities like looking up drivers' licenses records. When it completes its FTTH network, Leverett could also benefit from the MassBroadband 123 program, which has built out a complementary middle-mile network serving 123 communities in western and north central Massachusetts. The move comes at a time when opposition to municipalities building their own broadband networks is growing. Although Massachusetts currently does not have such a law, another 20 states have either developed laws that either bar or discourage municipalities from building their own networks. For more:
- Valley Advocate has this article Related articles:
Massachusetts Technology Collaborative tasks Axia to operate middle mile network
Lightower extends fiber network to Mass Broadband Institute's middle mile initiative
Mass Broadband Institute starts to flow $5 million funds to Open Cape initiative
Massachusetts government backs three public broadband projects Read more about: Western Mass Electric, Leverett Mass
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