Lumos Networks' (Nasdaq: LMOS) continued expansion into IP-based business and wholesale services, particularly fiber to the tower (FTTT) services for wireless operators, drove up Q1 2013 revenues year-over-year to $52.5 million.
Strategic data revenue, which represented almost 57 percent of total revenues, rose to $29.7 million, up sequentially from $28.9 million in Q4 2012 and up about 15 percent year over year from Q1 2012. Within the strategic data segment, enterprise and carrier data rose sequentially to $9.9 million and $14.9 million, respectively, while IP services rose to $4.7 million.
Complementing its gains in strategic data revenue, Lumos completed $425 million in debt refinancing at the end of April.
Tim Biltz, CEO and president of Lumos, said in the earnings release that with the debt refinancing complete he is "confident that we will now have the capital 'runway' needed to finance continued expansion of our dense fiber network to meet our customer's demands for fiber-based bandwidth for our key target customers in our Enterprise and Carrier data segments."
To meet the growing demand for wireless backhaul in the regions it services, Lumos completed 35 FTTT installations, reaching a total of 405 as of the end of March. The service provider has forecast that the number of "new FTTC installations will grow sequentially in the second quarter and maintains its target of 550-600 total FTTC installations by the end of 2013."
It also continued to make gains on building out its fiber network to serve more business customers, adding 39 on-net buildings to end the quarter with a total of 1,235 buildings. The telco also signed contracts with two core enterprises and three service provider customers in Richmond, Va., as part of its "edge-out" fiber network strategy. Lumos said that it expects the Richmond market to "go live" in Q3 2013.
Meanwhile, Lumos reported that in the RLEC business it did see some minor gains in both broadband and video service subscribers. During the quarter it added 51 new broadband customers and 117 video subscribers. As expected, legacy access and voice service revenue declined to $7.8 and $14.9 million, respectively.
Overall Q1 revenue was $52.5 million, compared to $51.4 million for the first quarter of 2012 and $52.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Looking toward Q2 2013, Lumos has forecast revenues to be about $52 million and adjusted EBITDA of about $24 million. It also reiterated its full-year revenue guidance to be in the range of $208 to $212 million and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $94 to $97 million.
Shares of Lumos Networks were trading at $13.49, up 0.49, or 3.77 percent in Friday morning trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
For more:
- see the earnings release
Earnings roundup: Wireline telecom earnings in the first quarter of 2013
Related articles:
Lumos Networks obtains MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 certification
Report: Lumos could become acquisition target, but not in 2013
Lumos revenue rises to $52.7 million on strong strategic data gains
Lumos Networks names AboveNet veteran Joti Balani as VP of Marketing
Lumos Networks adds mobile capabilities to its IP Centrex line