Cincinnati Bell's Fioptics revenue jumps 52 percent in Q1

Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB) reported that its Fioptics fiber to the premises (FTTP) service revenues rose 52 percent year-over-year in Q1 2013 to $22 million, helping to partially offset the ongoing impact of voice line losses.

Although the telco was able to narrow landline losses to 7.8 percent, they still drove down its overall wireline revenues to $180 million. Likewise, Q1 wireline operating income was $50 million, down from $57 million in the same period a year ago.

As of the end of the quarter, Cincinnati Bell had a total of 61,000 Fioptics customers and 58,000 entertainment subscribers, up 42 and 35 percent, respectively, from Q1 2012. It passed a total of 220,000 addresses with Fioptics.

Overall, the telco had a total of 260,000 broadband subscribers, including both Fioptics and DSL. It said that the ongoing build out of the Fioptics is having three positive results: improving speed and quality, generating increases in its Fioptics subscriber base mitigating legacy DSL customer losses.

Similar to other larger telcos that offer dual and triple play bundles such as CenturyLink, which also just reported its Q1 earnings, Fioptics consumer monthly ARPU rose year-over-year to $136 a month.

"The increases in Fioptics subscribers and revenue are very encouraging. It provides us strong momentum going into the rest of the year and will be the catalyst to transform Cincinnati Bell into a growth-oriented fiber company," said Kurt Freyberger, chief financial officer, in the earnings release.

Excluding CyrusOne results, Cincinnati Bell reaffirmed its financial guidance for 2013 of $1.2 billion in revenue.

Shares of Cincinnati Bell were listed $3.45, up 0.01, or 0.15 percent, Thursday afternoon on the stock New York Stock Exchange.

For more:
- see the earnings release

Earnings roundup: Wireline telecom earnings in the first quarter of 2013

Special report: Comparing broadband pricing: where do AT&T, Verizon, Cincinnati Bell and others stand?

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