Level 3 Communications (Nasdaq: LVLT) may still be struggling to get back in black, but the competitive service provider's focus on cost cutting and higher communications gross margins gave it a lift in Q3.
"Our dedication to customer service excellence has improved our customers' experience and was reflected in our results this quarter, with sequential and year-over-year growth in Core Network Services revenue," said James Crowe, CEO of Level 3 in the earnings release. "At the same time, we continued our disciplined approach to managing costs and improving margins during the quarter. With our investments in the business in 2010, we have good momentum as we look to 2011."
While revenue did decline again, Level did surpass analyst's expectations of a loss of 11 cents a share on $909 million with $912 million. What's more, Level 3 narrowed its losses from $169 Q3 09 to $163 million, or 10 cents a share.
A key contributor of revenue growth in Q3 was core network services. During the quarter, Level 3's $707 million in Core Network Services revenue was an increase of one percent from $699 million in Q2 2010 and one percent from $700 million in Q3 09.
Crowe said that the service provider's investments in Content Delivery Networks (CDN), wavelength services, and Ethernet put it into a position to "continue to grow revenue."
For more:
- see the release
- Reuters has this article
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