Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB) realizes that the only way it can offset continued declines in its bread and butter PSTN voice service is to find new revenue sources. Speaking at its recent annual shareholders meeting, CEO Jack Cassidy said that those new revenue sources will come in the form of fiber-based services (Fioptics) and commercial data centers.
Already, Cincinnati Bell is making progress in growing its data center and fiber service businesses.
On the data center side, the service provider reported in its Q1 2010 financial results that data center utilization increased by 14,000 square feet. In Q1, data center utilization was 90 percent on 446,000 square feet of data center space versus 87 percent utilization as of the end of 2009.
And while Cincinnati Bell has built a decent data center foothold in its own territory, Cassidy said they'll have to "chase companies that are outside our market and build facilities there."
No less compelling is Cincinnati Bell's Fiber to the Home (FTTH) drive. At the end of the first quarter, Cincinnati Bell's FTTH-based Fioptics product suite passed 49,000 homes, up from 41,000 at the end of 2009. However, it should be noted that in Q1 2010 the ILEC added only 2,800 new customers, a decline from the 10,200 that signed on to the new service in Q4.
For more:
- Dayton Business Journal has this article
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