Frontier's (NYSE: FTR) Q4 revenue doubles, but misses analyst forecasts

Frontier's (NYSE: FTR) Q4 2010 earnings report was a bit of a mixed bag where revenue more than doubled to $1.36 billion, a result of its acquisition of Verizon's rural phone lines, but it wasn't able to fulfill analysts expectations of $1.39 billion.

Between October and December 2010, Frontier's Q4 earnings were $46 million, or five cents a share, up from $4.4 million, or one cent a share in 2009.

However, its results again missed analysts forecast 10 cents a share for the quarter.   

While Frontier did miss analyst estimates, Maggie Wilderotter, Chairman and CEO of Frontier Communications, said that the integration process of the Verizon lines is on track and that it the company saw continued growth in its consumer and business segments.

"Our focus on streamlining processes and local engagement resulted in strong customer metrics--including reduced churn of access line customers, and improvements in high-speed internet, video and commercial sales," she said in an earnings release.  "We also increased our broadband availability in the new markets by 240,000 households, are well into our conversion planning for the next 4 states and took an additional $52 million of annualized synergies out of the business."  

Here is a breakdown of key company metrics:

  • Landline Losses: As a result of the Verizon acquisition, Frontier reported that it had 5,745,718 access lines at the end of the quarter, including 3,635,670 residential and 2,110,048 business lines.
  • Broadband Services: During the quarter, Frontier signed up 5,600 new broadband customers, consisting of 1,500 net additions for Frontier legacy operations and 4,100 net additions for the acquired properties. As of the end of December, Frontier had 1,697,200 DSL customers.
  • Video Services: Video sales a la its relationship with satellite provider DirecTV were also up in the quarter as Frontier added 15,800 DirecTV video customers during the fourth quarter of 2010. In total, Frontier had 531,400 video customers as of the end of 2010.
  • Business Services: Frontier reported $591,380 in business revenues helped by both strong commercial sales winbacks, including over 100 business wins in its West Virginia region.

Looking forward into 2011, Frontier said it expects capex spending and free cash flow, excluding acquisition/integration costs and capital expenditures, to be within a range of $750 million to $780 million and $1.15 billion to $1.2 billion.

For more:
- see the earnings release
- Reuters has this article
- see FierceTelecom's Q4 earnings summary

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