Sprint's Q4 wireline revenues rise to $949 million sequentially on IP sales

Sprint (NYSE: S) reported on Thursday that its Q4 wireline revenues rose 1 percent sequentially to $949 million due to an increase of IP volumes.

However, on a year-over-year basis wireline revenues declined 10 percent, a factor Sprint attributes to an intercompany rate reduction based on current market prices for voice and IP services sold to the wireless segment as well as lower voice, data and IP volumes.

During the quarter, data and Internet revenues rose sequentially to $96 and $451 million, respectively, while voice revenues declined to $385 million. However, on a year-over-year basis, total wireline revenues declined to $3.8 billion from $4.3 billion.

Overall wireline network operating expenses declined about 12 percent year-over-year to $878 million due to lower cost of service from continued declines in voice volumes and improvement in SG&A expenses. On a sequential basis, net operating expenses declined by 1 percent as a result of declines in SG&A.

Two of the major initiatives Sprint launched during the last year on the wireline side were related to cloud and Ethernet access services.

Last July, Sprint established a partnership with systems integrator CSC to provide its business customers with a set of everyday services such as cloud-based email, managed hosting and colocation.

As part of the agreement, CSC joined its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions with Sprint's Unified-Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) offering launched in March. Business customers will be able to use Sprint's IP/MPLS backbone to connect to the CSC Trusted Cloud.

Another key area for Sprint is providing Ethernet access for enterprises.

While Sprint clearly trails many of the established Ethernet players, it is making progress in expanding its Ethernet footprint. To date, Sprint Ethernet Access is available today in 147 markets domestically and 64 countries.

Stephanie Greenwood, a Sprint spokeswoman, told FierceTelecom they "plan to continue building out existing markets and adding new markets in 2013, as well as expanding globally."

From an overall financial perspective, the company reported consolidated net operating revenue of $9 billion and full year consolidated net operating revenue of $35.3 billion.

Sprint shares were trading at $5.71, down 6 cents, or 1.04 percent, on morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more:
- see the earnings release

Special report: Wireline telecom earnings in the fourth quarter of 2012

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