ILECs grew video, business and broadband power in Q1 2012

Q2 2012 earnings wrap telecomWith the Q1 2012 earnings season coming to an end, FierceTelecom is taking the time to size up the performance of the top 10 ILECs.

As seen in previous quarters, the top ILECs continue to see ongoing IP service growth pains. They continued to see gains in their next-gen business and consumer services, including broadband data, video and Ethernet, while voice services continued their expected decline.

At the top of the ILEC heap, AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) both continued to find success in their next-gen U-verse and FiOS service sets. On the consumer side, video and broadband continued to be hot sellers for both AT&T and Verizon. During the quarter, AT&T added 200,000 U-verse TV and 718,000 U-Verse Internet subscribers, while Verizon added 104,000 broadband customers and 108,000 FiOS TV subscribers.

Finally, CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) reported that while revenues declined due to traditional voice losses, it saw continued progress with consumer broadband and business services growth. On the consumer end, the third largest telco reported that it added 89,000 broadband subscribers and 15,000 IPTV subscribers.

The top three ILECs' business services units were just as impressive. Driven by strategic business services, including managed services and Ethernet Verizon's business services grew 0.9 percent to $3.9 billion, while AT&T reported revenues from strategic business services, including Ethernet, VPNs, hosting, IP conferencing and application services grew 19 percent. While a decline in legacy service dragged down CenturyLink's Business Markets Group (BMG) revenue to $917 million, strategic service revenues such as Ethernet strategic rose 3 percent to $450 million.

Outside of the big three, the Tier 2 ILECs, including Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN), FairPoint (Nasdaq: FRP), and Hawaiian Telcom (Nasdaq: HCOM) all reported gains during the quarter.

Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) reported a solid quarter with strong gains in broadband and business driving up total revenues to $1.55 billion. With its PAETEC acquisition closed, the service provider saw business revenues rise 3.2 percent to $897 million. 

The performance of both FairPoint and Hawaiian Telcom were also notable with both telcos showing progress with their respective business and broadband initiatives. During the quarter, FairPoint added 4,375 broadband subscribers during the quarter, while seeing continued gains from its new carrier-Ethernet offering. Likewise, Hawaiian Telcom reported another positive quarter with $97.6 million in revenues of and added 2,246 new IPTV subscribers, which now passes 41,200 homes.

In the regional Tier 2 telco space, Consolidated Communications is in the process of completing its acquisition of SureWest Communications as the company shareholders and regulators review the deal. Both Consolidated and SureWest separately saw gains in their consumer broadband and video subscriber bases in addition to wholesale FTTT services during the fourth quarter.

Please take a look at the Q1 2012 metrics in the chart below. You can also look at our report of all of the service providers here in Q1 2012, and don't forget to look at our reports from second quarter 2011, and third quarter 2011, and fourth quarter 2011.

Q1 2011 Roundup -- Top 10 ILECs

Carrier

Revenues

Access Lines Q1

Access Lines Q4

Broadband Adds

Total Wireline Broadband

Video Adds

M&A

AT&T

$31.8 billion

37.8 million

41.3 million

718,000 new U-verse subs,  103,000 total new wireline broadband subs

5.9 million

200,000 U-verse TV

Sold large stake in Yellow Pages to Cerberus Capital

Verizon

$28.2 billion

23.7 million

24.1 million

104,000

4.35 million

108,000 new FiOS TV

N/A

CenturyLink

$4.61 billion

14.4 million

14.5 million

89,000

5.64 million

Nearly 15,000

Integrating Qwest,
Embarq,
Savvis assets

Frontier

$1.27 billion

5.16 million

5.26 million

11,700

1.77 million

4,400 video subs (including satellite TV & net loss of 4,800 FiOS video subs)

Completed integration
of Verizon
assets

Windstream

$1.55 billion

3.15 million

3.18 million

8,500

1.36 million

700

completed PAETEC acquisition

FairPoint

$248.5 million

1.01 million

1.03 million

4,375

318,510

Not reported

N/A

Cincinnati Bell

$363 million

 608,600

621,300

Added 4,000 Fioptics high-speed internet subs, lost 4,400 traditional DSL subs

257,200

3,000 Fioptics entertainment

N/A

TDS Telecom

$1.30 billion (TDS)

363,500

 482,000

Lost 100 subs

219,500

300 IPTV customers

N/A

Hawaiian Telcom

$97.6 million

408,883

416,667

104,358

3,167 year-over-year

added 2,246 new subscribers (increased homes passed to 41,200)

N/A

Consolidated Communications

$93.4 million

226,167

227,992

1,455

110,913

981 IPTV subscribers

Acquiring SureWest

 

Lumos
Networks

$51.4 million

150,641 (RLEC & competitive connections)

158,693

267

35,974

285

Spun off
from NTELOS

SureWest

$62.8 million

75,600 RGUs

76,400 RGUs

 

102,600

3,600

Being acquired by Consoli-
dated Comm.