Sprint's wireline unit may be focused on the IP services future, but the Q4 09 results illustrate the near-term reality of declining revenues. The service provider reported that wireline unit revenues dropped 13 percent year-over-year to $1.3 billion, a factor it attributes to rate reductions and volume.
However, there were some bright spots worth mentioning. An increased demand from enterprises for Global MPLS services and a "slight increase" in cable VoIP subscribers helped to drive up its Internet revenues 7 percent in 2009. Even as end-customer IP service migrations were down, Internet revenues increased 34 percent in 2008 to 41 percent in 2009.
At the same time, aggressive spending on its IP network in previous years is having a positive effect on its opex and capex spending trends. Wireline opex for Q4 09 was $1.2 billion, while year-over-year wireline opex expenses improved 9 percent "due to declines in costs of service as IP becomes a larger percent of the wireline base." Likewise, capex spending was $62 million in Q4 09 versus $110 million in Q4 08 and $72 million in Q3 09.
For more:
- see the release here (pdf)
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