http://www.onetrak.com/Rss/RssFeed.ashx?CategoryId=4&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1Company/Sector Analysis. A service of One Touch Intelligence, Inc.http://www.onetrak.com/Rss/RssFeed.ashx?CategoryId=4&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4511http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/bx_23tQCOs4/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comWalt Disney Co. revenue grew 16% in Q3 '10, led by a 30% jump at the studio division and a 19% increase at the media networks.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/bx_23tQCOs4" height="1" width="1"/>Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-10T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p>Walt Disney Co. revenue grew 16% in Q3 '10, led by a 30% jump at the studio division and a 19% increase at the media networks.</p> <p>Overall revenue climbed to $10 billion, up from $8.6 billion. Operating income jumped 37% to $2.5 billion, from $1.95 billion.</p> <p>Cable network revenue jumped 28%, from $2.56 billion to $3.28 billion. Much of the jump came from recognizing $344 million in deferred revenue at ESPN, compared to only $37 million a year ago.</p> <p>Disney said that 25% of ESPN's World Cup related revenue came from nonlinear outlets, including online and mobile.</p> <p>(Overall ESPN digital revenue will grow 40% in 2010).</p> <p>The World Cup helped boost ad revenue up 31% in the quarter. Without soccer, ESPN ad revenue would have risen 17%.</p> <p>Cable network operating income jumped 50%, from $1.11 billion to $1.68 billion.</p> <p>The broadcasting division managed a 4% gain in revenue to $1.44 billion and a 2% rise in operating income to $209 million.</p> <p>Ad revenue was up 32% at the station group in the quarter. Scatter network pricing is running 33% higher than upfront, Disney said.</p> <p>Scatter pricing is running 20% above upfront levels.</p> <p>CEO Bob Iger said the long term monetization of digital will include micropayments, subscriptions, advertising and varying forms of PPV.</p> <p>He also said Disney was interested in testing early window VOD movies (pre home video) at a premium price.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4511http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4505http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/HdNyD0vFKm0/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comDish Network's streak of three consecutive quarters of growth above 237,000 subscribers came crashing down in Q2 '10, as the DBS company reported a loss of 19,000 units.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/HdNyD0vFKm0" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-09T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=13">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Dish Network's streak of three consecutive quarters of growth above 237,000 subscribers came crashing down in Q2 '10, as the DBS company reported a loss of 19,000 units.</p> <p>The loss compared to a gain of 26,000 subscribers in Q2 '09, a quarter in which the entire multichannel platform industry benefited from the digital transition.</p> <p>Dish blamed a heightened competitive environment for its loss and pricing changes.</p> <p>"The competitive intensity is as high as it's ever been," EVP Tom Cullen said.</p> <p>The company raised equipment rates on Feb. 1, which had an effect early in Q2, the company said. The June 1 rate hike also impacted results in the quarter, Dish said. The company also said it tightened credit and retention policies in the quarter.</p> <p>Cullen said that Dish is increasing an emphasis on segmentation, and focusing on more branding and less direct response in its ads, Cullen said. There will increasingly be an emphasis on targeted tactics for acquisition, he said.</p> <p>Cullen did say that HD and DVR attach rates was increasing for new subscribers.</p> <p>Along with that went worsening metrics in other categories.</p> <p>Churn rose from last year's already high 1.73% to 1.79%. "We have not seen significant improvement in the economy in general, said EVP Tom Cullen. "It did have an impact on results." He added: "We still have a long ways to go in service provisioning and quality."</p> <p>As to cord cutting, Cullen said: "We haven't seen evidence of widespread cord cutting."</p> <p>SAC jumped from $709 to $743.</p> <p>Even ARPU rose only modestly, from $70.73 to $73.05 per month. The increase was largely driven by the receiver prices changes, Dish said, as well as an uptick in PPV revenue.</p> <p>Gross additions rose from 731,000 to 747,000.</p> <p>There were positive notes on the financial side. Revenue rose 9.1% to $3.17 billion, and operating income jumped 8.3% to $526 million.</p> <p>On TV Everywhere, Cullen said "we will be more aggressive in deploying Sling like applications."</p> <p>The company estimates about 60% of its broadband connections are via DSL.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4505http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4502http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/v9uOEzvB_bI/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comMediacom posted a 3.4% gain in Q2 '10 revenue, bolstered by solid growth on data and phone.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/v9uOEzvB_bI" height="1" width="1"/>Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-06T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=17">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Mediacom posted a 3.4% gain in Q2 '10 revenue, bolstered by solid growth on data and phone.</p> <p>Revenue reached $377 million, while operating income ($77.2 million) came in flat compared to last year.</p> <p>The MSO lost 18,000 basic subscribers, versus a loss of 15,000 last year, and the slight decline in digital additions (6,000 versus 8,000) caused a slight drop in overall video revenue.</p> <p>Some 42% of digital subscribers are taking HD or DVR service.</p> <p>Most of the basic losses were basic-only subscribers lured to DBS low cost offers.</p> <p>But data and phone revenue were up more than 10% on the strength of RGU growth in those categories.</p> <p>The company added 10,000 data subscribers, versus 6,000 a year ago, and 17,000 phone subscribers, more than double last year's additions of 8,000.</p> <p>All that propelled ARPU forward to $102.59 per month, from $94.22 a year ago.</p> <p>The company counts 57% double play and 20% triple play customers.<br /> </p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4502http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4506http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/wBZWrLCaKAc/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comIn one of the more unusual turnabouts seen so far during the second quarter earnings season, T-Mobile once again lost subscribers in the second quarter 2010 – but the losses came not from its embattled postpaid segment but rather the prepaid segment.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/wBZWrLCaKAc" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-05T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=24">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>In one of the more unusual turnabouts seen so far during the second quarter earnings season, T-Mobile once again lost subscribers in the second quarter 2010 &ndash; but the losses came not from its embattled postpaid segment but rather the prepaid segment.</p> <p>For the quarter, the nation's fourth largest mobile carrier lost 93,000 customers, up from the 77,000 customers lost in the first quarter and a reverse compared to the 342,000 added in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>But unlike the past two quarters, the damage was not in the postpaid segment. T-Mobile added 106,000 postpaid subscribers, a strong turnaround compared to the 118,000 lost in the first quarter and ahead of the 56,000 added in the second quarter a year ago. T-Mobile attributes the loss to ramping competition in the segment and the loss of mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) customers.</p> <p><strong>Prepaid the culprit</strong></p> <p>The trouble spot was in prepaid business, which has recently been a strong contributor for T-Mobile. No more, as the segment lost 199,000 customers, more than wiping out the 41,000 customers added in the first quarter and a reverse from the 268,000 added in the second quarter a year ago.</p> <p>At the end of June, T-Mobile held on to $33.6 million customers.</p> <p>The overall subscriber losses also meant T-Mobile had the dubious distinction of having the worst attrition rate among the Big Four carriers, as overall churn rose to 3.4% from 3.1% in the first quarter and 3.1% in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>Postpaid churn held steady at 2.2%, the same as in the first quarter and in the second quarter a year ago. The prepaid losses drove churn for that segment to 7.6% from 6.85 in the first quarter and 7% in the second quarter a year ago.</p> <p><strong>Gross additions were key</strong></p> <p>During the second quarter earnings call for parent Deutsche Telekom, CEO Rene Obermann attributed T-Mobile USA's postpaid subscriber turnaround not to improved churn but rather to a bigger influx of gross customer additions, which totaled 1.36 million in the quarter, up 16% from the 1.12 million gross additions in the prior second quarter.</p> <p>"It's basically the success of the 3G smartphone lineup. We talked about that for a long time, but now the 3G suite of devices is really getting more attractive," Obermann said. "And we did good promotions in Q2."</p> <p>However, the carrier still has a problem with its high postpaid churn rate, which held flat despite the progress made with new postpaid customer gains. Obermann noted that there was "high competitive intensity" generated by Sprint Nextel Corp.'s launch of the HTC EVO 4G handset as well as AT&amp;T's late-quarter launch of the Apple iPhone 4.</p> <p>"We need to work on this &ndash; we need to get that down," Obermann said of the postpaid churn rate. "But we were able to over-compensate that high churn with better gross adds."</p> <p>To that end, T-Mobile has set up a churn improvement program with added upgrades and incentives to keep loyal customers. The goal is to lower the churn rate between 20 and 25 basis points to less than 1.8% for the full year &ndash; a tall order, given churn rates usually rise during the second half of the year.</p> <p>T-Mobile's overall ARPU, meanwhile, rose $1 sequentially to $47, but it was still lower than the $48 ARPU in the second quarter 2009. Similarly, postpaid ARPU rose $1 sequentially to $52 but was flat compared to the $52 ARPU in the second quarter last year.</p> <p>Data ARPU hit $11.60, up strongly from $10.90 in the first quarter and $9.90 in the second quarter a year ago. Obermann attributed a jump in the number of 3G handset activations as the reason for the strong data ARPU rise during the quarter. At the end of the quarter, 19% of T-Mobile's postpaid customers had activated smartphones, totaling about 6.5 million users.</p> <p>The carrier has set a goal to raise that penetration to 8 million users by the end of the year.</p> <p>"We expect, however, the U.S. market to remain in this regard competitive, and we will have to play along with this trend," Obermann said.</p> <p>The uptick in data ARPU raised overall data revenue to $1.17 billion, up from $1.1 billion in the first quarter and $990 million in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>In revenue, T-Mobile did manage to reverse the downward trend seen in the past two quarters, pulling in $5.36 billion. That's up from $5.28 billion in the first quarter and $5.34 billion in the prior second quarter.</p> <p>Net income totaled $404 million, up from $362 million in the first quarter but down from $425 million in the second quarter last year.</p> <p><strong>3G expansion continues</strong></p> <p>Meanwhile, T-Mobile is continuing its 3G expansion to further boost postpaid performance, and on that front it has extended its network to now cover 208 million people in the United States. Its parallel HSPA+ upgrade &ndash; which can theoretically deliver downlink speeds of up to 21 Mbps &ndash; now covers about 85 million people within the broadband network coverage area, with plans to raise that to 185 million by year's end.</p> <p>"We will launch our first HSPA+ smartphone later this summer," Obermann added.</p> <p>T-Mobile still is in no hurry to find additional spectrum and move to LTE, given the ongoing HSPA+ rollout offers theoretical maximum downlink speeds of 21 Mbps, Obermann said T-Mobile could find additional spectrum through the FCC's plan to free up airspace for broadband through auctions, or it could lease or partner with another provider to gain spectrum.</p> <p>"The time pressure on the migration to 4G I think we shouldn't overplay because our HSPA + technology currently is really superior, and HSPA + is not yet at the end of its life cycle, so there will be further upgrades I believe with regards to its performance," he said.</p> <p>At the same time Obermann declined to comment on any prospects for a merger or partnership to widen T-Mobile's broadband reach.</p> <p>"Our way to 4G &ndash; we have a number of ways to get there, and we will focus on that over then next 12 to 18 months," he said.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4506http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4496http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/re4o8om17B4/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comDirecTV added a modest 100,000 subscribers in Q2 '10, a far cry from its gain of 224,000 a year ago, but on par with Q1 '10's gain of 100,000.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/re4o8om17B4" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-05T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=12">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>DirecTV added a modest 100,000 subscribers in Q2 '10, a far cry from its gain of 224,000 a year ago, but on par with Q1 '10's gain of 100,000.</p> <p>The company continues to concentrate on increasing profitability under new CEO Michael White, as profit grew 38% from $652 million to $899 million on a revenue gain of 9.4% to $4.9 billion.</p> <p>Gross subscriber additions fell to 946,000 from 1,048,000 a year ago.</p> <p>Some 70% of new subscribers took advanced services.</p> <p>Churn held steady at 1.51%, the first time in five quarters churn fell. Voluntary churn fell for the first time in nine quarters.</p> <p>ARPU rose a modest 5.7% from $83.16 per month to $87.90 per month.</p> <p>CFO Pat Doyle said net additions were a bit higher than internal expectations, despite a drop in gross additions from the telco channel from 2% to 15% to 20%.</p> <p>Doyle said the company's new deal with CenturyLink (5 million homes passed in 33 states) will help boost the telco sales channel.</p> <p>Ad revenues were "very strong," CEO Michael White said, its best Q2 in history.</p> <p>SAC rose from $694 to $783, which White acknowledged "was a bit higher than we would have liked."</p> <p>But two-thirds of that increase stemmed from higher penetration of advanced services as well as the introduction of whole home DVR, he said. White said 38% of new customers took HD/DVR service, compared to 25% a year ago.</p> <p>On TV Everywhere, White said digital rights and authentification are part of current program contract renewals. "We have got a fantastic experience on an iPad," he said.</p> <p>CFO Pay Doyle said gross additions continue to pace well into the third quarter (due to MR DVR and free HD promotions), with the company expecting gross and net additions to rise in the second half of 2010, compared to last year.</p> <p>White added: "There are levers we haven't pulled yet, including box prices," hinting at an equipment price hike in February 2011, the time when DirecTV typically raises prices.</p> <p>Still, White said, "consumers are still very value sensitive. We need to continue to be competitive in the service that we provide customers. We're trying to do that in a very segmented and targeted way."</p> <p>White acknowledged it was his call to fold the separate NFL Superfan service into the overall NFL Sunday Ticket.</p> <p>The company will offer NFL Sunday Ticket on broadband for those customers who can't get an adequate TV signal on a nationwide basis this year. Last year, it was only available in Manhattan. "We didn't get a huge take on it a year ago," he said.</p> <p>White said the company has 800,000 subscribers with DirecTV STBs connected to the Internet via broadband, with 70,000 added in Q2.</p> <p>The company is looking at upgrading its user interface, including picture in picture, speed changes, recommendation software and personalization over the next 18 to 24 months.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4496http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4495http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/SGBRSC30nn8/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comCablevision Systems Corp. posted a 5.6% increase in cable in Q2 '10, due to positive basic subscriber gains and growth in high-speed data additions.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/SGBRSC30nn8" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-05T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=6">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Cablevision Systems Corp. posted a 5.6% increase in cable in Q2 '10, due to positive basic subscriber gains and growth in high-speed data additions.</p> <p>Cable revenue rose 5.6% to $1.37 billion, AOCF jumped 12.2% to $592.6 million and operating income rose 24% to $401 million.</p> <p>The MSO added 2,900 basic subscribers, a turnaround from last year's loss of 8,700. The company added 21,100 digital subscribers, versus a gain of 56,000 a year ago, which sent digital penetration to 95.4%.</p> <p>HSD additions rose to 27,000 from 17,900 a year ago, giving it a 54.3% penetration rate.</p> <p>Phone additions of 24,900 were down from 37,600 a year ago.</p> <p>"The market for housing is terribly soft," COO Tom Rutledge said. "There is virtually no construction in our footprint and occupancy rates are still low. There is no real wind at our back that comes from new household formation."</p> <p>Rutledge said the company continues to winback subscribers from DBS and Verizon. The FiOS footprint hasn't expanded from its 1.8 million passings, Rutledge said.</p> <p>ARPU rose 6.8% to $149.12 per month.</p> <p>Ad revenue rose 26.7% to $33 million.</p> <p>The MSO has completed its all digital transition in New York City and Connecticut, with Long Island on tap next. This will provide "a vast amount of new capacity for new products and services," Rutledge said.</p> <p>The company's Media Relay PC to TV service, now in technical test, will rollout en masse in Q4, he said.</p> <p>The company also is working on "IPTV apps," he said, which will allow subscribers to view Cablevision content on IP devices, such as iPads and smartphones.</p> <p>The company's view of IPTV is this, Rutledge said. "We will provide our full service [VOD, basic, digital video] that we offer in the home on any device that can act as a TV in the home," Rutledge said.</p> <p>On RS-DVR, Rutledge said the company will likely price it the same as its current DVR. "The RS-DVR will be our DVR strategy," he said, but the company doesn't want to necessarily cannibalize current DVR revenue.</p> <p>Rutledge said some 250,000 user devices have been authorized for its WiFi network.<br /> </p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4495http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4494http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/KLDQGoUF1ww/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comSolid RGU gains in digital and data helped Time Warner Cable post a 5.8% increase in revenue in Q2 '10.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/KLDQGoUF1ww" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-05T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=26">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Solid RGU gains in digital and data helped Time Warner Cable post a 5.8% increase in revenue in Q2 '10.</p> <p>Revenue rose from $4.47 billion to $4.73 billion, while adjusted OIBDA rose 4.1% to $918 million.</p> <p>Basic video losses nearly doubled, from 57,000 to 111,000, due to tough comparison with last year's broadcast TV digital transition activity. The vast majority of the losses (83,000) were single play customers, the company said. TWC lost 29,000 double play subscribers and gained 68,000 triple play subs.</p> <p>In contrast, digital and HSD additions held up well. The MSO added 50,000 digital subscribers, compared to a gain of 54,000 a year ago. The MSO added 52,000 DVR subs in the quarter.</p> <p>Data additions of 85,000 were just a tad below last year's gain of 88,000. Some two-thirds of the net additions took TWC's Turbo tier, and another 1,000 signed up for the MSO's DOCSIS 3.0 tier. Some 12% of HSD subs are now on Turbo tiers.</p> <p>Phone additions fell to 63,000 from 103,000 a year ago.</p> <p>CEO Glenn Britt said "the economy continues to bounce along the bottom." The company said that while churn improved, connects were down, and that Q3 trend lines are down from last year, even adjusting for the benefits of the digital transition.</p> <p>HSD revenue grew 9.7% to $1.12 billion, voice revenue climbed 7.2% to $505 million and ad revenue jumped 24% to $216 million. Even video revenue managed a 2.8% gain to $2.78 billion, on the strength of a 13% gain in DVR revenue and a 9% gain in VOD revenue. Commercial revenue grew 20% to $268 million.</p> <p>Those increases propelled ARPU ahead 6.6% to $108.40 per month, from $101.71 a year ago.</p> <p>Video ARPU grew 5.2% to $71.73 and HSD revenue rose 1.9% to $38.11. Phone ARPU fell 2.9% to $37.09.</p> <p>The company is launching both caller ID on the PC and multiroom DVR features.</p> <p>The company spent $10 million in the quarter on wireless broadband, up from $5 million in Q1. The company still expects to spend $50 million this year on rolling out WiMax via Clearwire.</p> <p>The MSO declined to give any subscribers figures on wireless, with Britt saying the company "was still in the learning stage."</p> <p>COO Landel Hobbs said AT&amp;T U-verse spending was up sharply in the quarter, which went along with its increased reach to 22% of TWC homes passed. Verizon remains at 10% homes passed, he said.</p> <p>The company has completed its SDV rollout in New York City, which will allow it to drive its HD channel count to 150 in the next several weeks.</p> <p>The company launched whole home DVR in Charlotte, N.C., and plans a broader rollout later this year.</p> <p>The DVR sports a 1TB hard drive and up to four streams of viewing. The company also rolled out remote DVR management from the PC, iPhone or any other browser capable device.</p> <p>With rollouts in Albany, N.Y., and Charlotte, DOCSIS 3.0 has now been rolled out in one-third of the company's markets.</p> <p>Britt said the company is working on an iPad app, similar to what Comcast showed at the National Show. "They are actually quite easy to do," he said.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4494http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4493http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/jG7yDTzw2zE/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comAs predicted, Clearwire had a booming second quarter, with 127,000 new retail subscriber gains, 595,000 wholesale subscriber gains and a 100% year-over-year jump in revenue.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/jG7yDTzw2zE" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-04T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=51">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>As predicted, Clearwire had a booming second quarter, with 127,000 new retail subscriber gains, 595,000 wholesale subscriber gains and a 100% year-over-year jump in revenue.</p> <p>The subscriber growth is so strong that the company has already passed the 1 million-subscriber mark as of Aug. 4, and it is now raising its full year 2010 subscriber tally from 2 million to 3 million.</p> <p>The wholesale additions contributed by partners Sprint Corp. and MSOs Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks somewhat stunning, given Clearwire counted just 157,000 wholesale customers going into the second quarter.</p> <p>With the second quarter additions the count now rises to 752,000, and is perhaps the best evidence yet that the cable partners and Sprint are seeing significant traction for 4G WiMAX as part of their service portfolios.</p> <p>Interestingly, about 52% of Clearwire's wholesale customers as of the end of June live in markets where Clearwire WiMAX service has not yet launched. These customers are using multimode 3G/4G services, and while they are somewhat dilutive to ARPU, they are a benefit to the business, said Chief Financial Officer Eric Prusch.</p> <p>Meanwhile, retail additions of 127,000 were a 10-fold increase compared to last year's gain of 12,000, for a total of 940,000 by the end of the quarter.</p> <p><strong>3 million by year's end</strong></p> <p>The growth is continuing, with new market launches in Washington D.C., St. Louis and Kansas City. Next up on the market launch list is Boston, CEO Bill Morrow said during the second quarter earnings call. Given the company has already hit the 1 million market, it means 248,000 customers have already been added in the first 35 days of the third quarter.</p> <p>And Clearwire continues to see enthusiastic usage rates among its subscribers, who on average consume 7 Gigabytes of data monthly.</p> <p>"We don't expect that trajectory to change," Morrow said.</p> <p>But not all metrics were on a positive upswing. Average revenue per user fell to $41.58 from $42.77 in the first quarter, although it was an improvement from the $39.47 ARPU in the prior second quarter.</p> <p>Also, churn ticked upward to 3.2% from 3% in the first quarter and 2.8% in the second quarter a year ago. That rise is in part due to to traditionally higher churn rates in the second quarter, but he also added that Clearwire expects churn to be elevated in the second half of this year.</p> <p>Churn is driven by customer perception of the network, and in the early stages of the rollout that's "the dynamic of why we are living in the 3s."</p> <p><strong>Revenue ramps</strong></p> <p>Still, the jump in subscribers fueled a 93% increase in revenue from $64 million to $122.5 million in the quarter. The company posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of $363 million in the quarter, versus a loss of $148 million last year, due to costs associated with the 4G rollout. Capex expense increased from $251 million to $622 million in the quarter.</p> <p>Clearwire's rollouts now cover 62.2 million people, up from 23.1 million a year ago. The company's goal is to hit 120 million people covered by the end of this year.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Clearwire has now expanded its wholesale business beyond its investment partners for the first time, recently inking deals with big-box electronics retailer Best Buy and competitive business services provider Cbeyond Inc. Both companies plan to launch 4G service under their own brands, in a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) partnership with Clearwire.</p> <p>"We expect both these wholesale partners to be an important part of our growth," Morrow said.</p> <p>In devices, Clearwire has launched the iSpot, a portable hotspot specifically geared for Apple Corp. devices ranging from laptop computers to the iPhone and the iPad.</p> <p>Morrow said the required $25 monthly unlimited data plan for the iSpot would be attractive to Apple users.</p> <p><strong>LTE trial</strong></p> <p>But probably Clearwire's most significant technology move is a plan to begin 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) trials, making it more likely than ever that Clearwire will make a transition to the 4G cellular technology in the coming years.</p> <p>Clearwire plans to test multiple schemes of dual LTE and WiMAX radio technologies. That includes partnering with Huawei Technologies, which has supplied LTE base stations for European deployments using the same 2.5 Gigahertz spectrum Clearwire uses. The trial also will test overlaying LTE on Clearwire's existing Samsung Electronics' WiMAX base stations.</p> <p> Clearwire will work with 4G chipmaker Beceem and other partners to create end-user devices.</p> <p>Using Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) LTE with dual 20 MHz spectrum, the technology could produce speeds from 20 Mbps to 70 Mbps, far beyond the stated 5-12 Mbps speeds Verizon Wireless has been quoting for its looming LTE rollout.</p> <p>"It's exciting from a technology and asset perspective, because we are the only provider in the nation with the ability to test on this scale," Morrow said.</p> <p>Based on the results of the trial, Clearwire will then make the decision of whether or how to make the move to LTE. Morrow noted that chipmakers such as Beceem are starting to develop silicon that can offer dual LTE and WiMAX radio capabilities, giving operators more flexibility in supporting both technologies in the same market.</p> <p>Still, "we have the ability to transition &ndash; we don't want to let go of the momentum that we have with WiMAX," he said.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Clearwire also is examining its funding options to complete buildout of its nationwide wireless network. Morrow said that includes talking to existing as well as possible new investors, and options on the table include taking on more debt or even selling off non-essential wireless spectrum.</p> <p>"We are not pressed for time, so we want to find the best terms that make sense &ndash; that make economic sense," Morrow said. In terms of a decision, "I wouldn't look for anything before the fourth quarter."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4493http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4486http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/uLwk4EeKIsA/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comCenturyLink Inc.’s second quarter was decidedly rocky, as the telco saw line losses rise sequentially even as broadband subscriber growth slowed and revenue took another downturn.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/uLwk4EeKIsA" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-04T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=15">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>CenturyLink Inc.'s second quarter was decidedly rocky, as the telco saw line losses rise sequentially even as broadband subscriber growth slowed and revenue took another downturn.</p> <p>There were more negatives for CenturyLink's voice business, which lost another 146,000 residential and business customers, up from 126,000 lost in the first quarter but down from the 197,000 pro forma lost by the former Embarq Corp. and CenturyLink in the second quarter last year.</p> <p>During the second quarter earnings call, CEO Glen Post noted CenturyLink saw a drop in the number of lines ported out during the quarter among business and residential customers. He attributed the drop to fewer residential moves, but also fewer incidents of businesses downsizing or closing.</p> <p>In data, CenturyLink added 29,000 customers to its fold during the quarter, well off the 70,000 added in the first quarter but on par with the 28,200 pro forma additions in the second quarter last year. Broadband penetration in legacy CenturyTel markets stands at about 40%, with legacy Embarq markets coming in a bit lower at 32%. Given that lag, "we have put a lot of focus on these larger markets," Post said.</p> <p>At quarter's end, CenturyLink held on to 6.77 million access lines and 2.3 million broadband customers.</p> <p>Video also saw declines in growth, as CenturyLink added 26,000 Dish Network customers, down from 33,000 added in the first quarter. In the second quarter 2009, CenturyLink issued no pro forma subscriber counts for video customers.</p> <p>At quarter's end, CenturyLink claimed 594,000 Dish Network subscribers, but going forward that will change. Last week CenturyLink announced it was switching its DSB partnership from Dish Network to DirecTV as of Aug. 1.</p> <p>Post indicated the switch would give CenturyLink a more attractive video offer.</p> <p>"DirecTV has a record of quality customer service and additional features such as NFL Sunday Ticket and whole home DVR that will add value for our customers," he said.</p> <p>More significantly, CenturyLink's IPTV service is up and running in portions of Jefferson City and Columbia, Mo. and in La Crosse, Wis. All are being served by a national headend in Columbia.</p> <p><strong>IPTV debuts in Las Vegas</strong></p> <p>"We remain pleased with the performance of the IPTV service in its early stages," Post said. In addition to the three existing markets, "we are in the preliminary stages of launching service in Las Vegas."</p> <p>CenturyLink also is trialing in LaCrosse VDSL 2, a copper line pair-bonding technology to increase the loop lengths and therefore the service's reach. The tests indicate that expansion could be significant.</p> <p>"With the bonding we are comfortable right now with 8,000 (feet), and we might see that go up over time," said Chief Operating Officer Karen Puckett said. But CenturyLink does not want to erode service quality by extending too far, so "we are going to be pretty cautious."</p> <p>From there, CenturyLink has plans to launch the service to four additional markets, bringing the total market count by year's end to eight.</p> <p><strong>Cable competition</strong></p> <p>CenturyLink also is hoping that line-bonding technology can give it the edge to compete with the growing availability of cable DOCSIS 3.0 broadband services within its territory.</p> <p>"If we can get 25 Mbps we can have 3 HD channels plus a switched digital channel and 3 to 5 or 6 Mbps of data," Post said. "Our goal is to own broadband access into the homes and businesses in our area, and we are working toward that."</p> <p>As for the competition, Puckett pointed not to the cable operators but rather other providers as the primary concern.</p> <p>"Going forward what we are seeing form a competition standpoint is some of the smaller regional players are becoming more aggressive," Puckett said. To combat that, "our plan is to become more local with our marketing efforts."</p> <p>The telco also may consider funneling more money into capital expenditures for line upgrades as a defense against cable's increasing broadband speeds.</p> <p>"We could see some acceleration there, or we could re-deploy our capital budget in areas where we think we may see more competition," Post said.</p> <p>In revenue, CenturyLink saw intake fall to $1.77 billion, down from $1.8 billion in the first quarter but up from $1.33 billion pro forma in the second quarter a year ago. Net income, however, rose to $265.7 million compared to $252.6 million in the first quarter and $204 million in the prior second quarter.</p> <p>There also were plenty of questions regarding CenturyLink's ongoing integration of the former Embarq service territory and how that might intersect with its proposed $10.6 billion acquisition of Qwest Communications International Inc.</p> <p>Post acknowledged that the specter of two major integrations going on at once did put pressure on the employees, "and we are aware of that." He also acknowledged that because of the ongoing Embarq integration &ndash; which should have 50% of the territory's billing and customer services converted to CenturyLink's systems by year's end &ndash; will slow down integration of Qwest billing and backoffice systems should that deal close as expected in the first half of 2011.</p> <p>Qwest also are more of a challenge because it includes several larger markets, "but we think our go to market and market strategy can be impactful in those markets," Post said.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4486http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4483http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/V9YPntaoqZc/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comQwest Communications International Inc.’s second quarter results may give acquirer CenturyLink Inc. cause for doubt, as the Bell operator saw line loss accelerate, broadband growth wane and video subscriber additions fall to zero.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/V9YPntaoqZc" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-04T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=19">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Qwest Communications International Inc.'s second quarter results may give acquirer CenturyLink Inc. cause for doubt, as the Bell operator saw line loss accelerate, broadband growth wane and video subscriber additions fall to zero.</p> <p>There were more losses for Qwest's residential voice service, as it shed another 194,000 customers. That's up from 166,000 lost in the first quarter and 217,000 lost in the prior second quarter.</p> <p>With that, Qwest's residential voice base fell to 5.3 million.</p> <p>In data, Qwest added 7,000 customers, well off from 40,000 in the first quarter and 34,000 in the second quarter 2009. That brought Qwest's total DSL base to 2.86 million customers.</p> <p><strong>FTTN comes to the rescue</strong></p> <p>Qwest's fiber-to-the-node service continued to see strong growth as Qwest extended the network to reach more than 4 million homes. It actually added 52,000 FTTN subscribers during the quarter, raising the overall FTN base to 500,000. But that was offset by losses in traditional DSL service, which apparently totaled about 45,000 customers to result in the net 7,000 broadband gain.</p> <p>At quarter's end, Qwest's broadband subscriber base stood at 2.86 million. During the second quarter earnings call, Chief Operating Officer Teresa Taylor noted that the DSL churn rate is holding steady compared to the second quarter 2009, "and loss of customers to the competition improved from a year ago."</p> <p>To reverse that trend, Qwest has recently launched a new promotion offering full Internet service, including antivirus and backup services.</p> <p>"We've seen activity with that already, and that's why I feel our third quarter net subscribers will be up compared to the second quarter," Taylor said.</p> <p><strong>More DOCSIS 3.0 competition</strong></p> <p>Qwest also has seen increased competition from cable DOCSIS 3.0 based data services in about 60% of its footprint. So it is continuing to counter with its own FTTN service, which now tops out at 40 Mbps downstream.</p> <p>"As far as in the FTTN footprint, we are aggressively fighting the competition, and we will continue to do that," Taylor said. To that end, Qwest is featuring its value-added services such as online file storage and computer technical support in addition to the core high-speed data connection.</p> <p>"We are really trying to move ourselves into a full suite of broadband services," she said.</p> <p>Things weren't as hopeful in the video segment, where Qwest also added no new DirecTV satellite customers, compared to 11,000 added in the first quarter and 21,000 added in the second quarter last year. At quarter's end, Qwest's TV subscriber base stood at 951,000.</p> <p>In wireless, Qwest's reseller partnership with Verizon Wireless drew in 60,000 added customers on bundled wireless and wireline bills, down from 84,000 added in the first quarter but ahead of 20,000 added in the fourth quarter. Qwest's wireless customer base totaled 982,000 at quarter's end.</p> <p>One small positive sign came from consumer ARPU rose to $62.39 from $61.64 in the first quarter and $58.20 in the prior first quarter, boosted largely because of the increased FTTN customer base as well as uptake in value added services.</p> <p>Overall Qwest's total revenue intake once again fell in the second quarter. The telco netted $2.93 billion, down from $2.97 billion in the first quarter and $3.1 billion in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>Net income, however, did recover from a first quarter dip of $38 million to total $158 million. But that is down compared to $348 million in the second quarter a year ago.</p> <p>On the merger front, Qwest and CenturyLink have received approvals so far from six states, with 16 in process along with the Federal Communications Commission.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4483http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4482http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/3xtEozZLydk/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comCharter Communications posted a 4.9% increase in pro forma revenue in Q2 '10, despite a small drop in RGUs, as strength in digital, data and phone offset basic video losses.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/3xtEozZLydk" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-08-04T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=7">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Charter Communications posted a 4.9% increase in pro forma revenue in Q2 '10, despite only a small gain in RGUs, as strength in digital, data and phone offset basic video losses.</p> <p>The company lost 76,600 basic subscribers, on par with last year's losses of 73,000. Nearly all those customers were video only subs, Charter said.</p> <p>Digital additions came in at 25,500 versus a loss of 5,800 a year ago.</p> <p>Charter's HD/DVR additions increased 30% year over year, with nearly half the company's digital subs taking HD and/or DVR, CEO Mike Lovett said.</p> <p>The company added 21,900 HSD customers, versus a gain of 10,600 last year.</p> <p>"We doubled our year over year RGU volume," Lovett said.</p> <p>Phone additions increased by 35,200, versus a gain of 52,300 a year ago.</p> <p>Lovett said Charter saw typically seasonality, with softness in June that continued into July that's been "a little bit more than we've seen historically."</p> <p>"We didn't really chase digital transition subscribers so we didn't see a real rolloff trend," Lovett said. "We did see an increase in competitive advertising from DBS companies."</p> <p>Overall ARPU rose 9.4% to $124.06 per month.</p> <p>Video ARPU rose 4.8% to $68.90 per month.</p> <p>Charter said it's been working diligently to close the ARPU gap with its peers. "I think we are in the ballpark now," Lovett said. Charter said it raised rates between 3.5% and 4%, so most of the ARPU growth is coming from advanced services.</p> <p>Revenue rose 4.9% to $1.77 billion. While video revenue remained flat at $932 million, HSD revenue rose 9.5% to $402 million, phone revenue increased 10.9% to $206 million and commercial revenue jumped 10% to $121 million. Ad sales rose 16.1% to $72 million.</p> <p>Adjusted EBITDA rose 1.3% to $646 million.</p> <p>Charter said it has accelerated the rollout of switched digital video. SDV has been implemented in 25% of its systems today, with a goal to reached 60% by yearend. SDV is allowing Charter to increase HD channels to 60, with the ability to grow to 100 HD channels.</p> <p>DOCSIS 3.0 has been rolled out in 33% of Charter's systems, with a goal to reach 50% by yearend. Charter's home networking penetration increased to 17%, with the quarter posting a 60% increase, year over year.<br /> </p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4482http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4473http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/UTeHJU37vwg/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comOne might hear the sound of champagne corks popping at Sprint Nextel Corp.’s Overland Park, Kan. headquarters as the struggling wireless carrier managed to record positive subscriber growth and a sub-2% churn rate for the first time in three years.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/UTeHJU37vwg" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-07-28T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?ID=23">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>One might hear the sound of champagne corks popping at Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Overland Park, Kan. headquarters as the struggling wireless carrier managed to record positive subscriber growth and a sub-2% churn rate for the first time in three years.</p> <p>But it still wasn't a complete victory, as the carrier again saw its valuable postpaid subscriber base dwindle even as total revenue again fell.</p> <p>In postpaid subscribers, Sprint did in fact still see losses, but not at the rate recorded in 2008 and 2009. The carrier lost 228,000 postpaid subscribers, down from 578,000 customers in the first quarter and 991,000 lost in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>Once again, Sprint's foundering iDEN network was the culprit for the subscriber loss. Sprint's CDMA-based retail postpaid service actually gained 136,000 net new customers, driven in part by demand for smartphones including the HTC EVO 4G. The simple math indicates that iDEN losses totaled about 364,000 customers in the quarter.</p> <p>The CDMA postpaid subscriber gains may also have been slowed somewhat by shortages in popular smartphone models such as the HTC EVO 4G. The sudden demand that is putting some strain on the supply chain, "so we are working with our vendors closely, particularly HTC," said CEO Dan Hesse, during the second quarter earnings call. "And yes, we could sell more if we could get more."</p> <p>Sprint's multi-brand prepaid business including Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and the new Assurance low-income offering offset some of those losses, but the growth rate for the segment did slow as in the first quarter. Sprint added 173,000 prepaid customers, down from 348,000 in the first quarter and 777,000 in the second quarter last year.</p> <p>The carrier also added 166,000 wholesale and affiliate subscribers, up from 155,000 added in the first quarter and a reversal from the 43,000 subscribers lost in the second quarter a year ago.</p> <p><strong>Positive sub growth</strong></p> <p>With the combined gains in prepaid and wholesale, Sprint's did something it has not done since the second quarter 2007 &ndash; its added customers overall. Sprint's total customer base rose by 111,000, compared to 75,000 net customers lost during the first quarter and 257,000 lost in the prior second quarter.</p> <p>At the end of the quarter, Sprint claimed 49.17 million subscribers.</p> <p>The rising customer count also had a positive impact on churn. Sprint's postpaid churn rate for the first time in several years was south of the 2% mark, coming in at 1.85% compared to 2.15% in the first quarter and 2.05% in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>Hesse was quick to point out that had it not been for the decommissioning of the failed Helio wireless service fielded with SK Telecom &ndash; resulting in loss of an estimated 60,000 customers &ndash; the postpaid churn rate would have been 1.78%. In addition, postpaid port-ins, which reflect customers coming to Sprint from other carriers, rose 84% year-over-year.</p> <p>By comparison, however, Sprint still trails far behind rivals AT&amp;T Mobility and Verizon Wireless' respective postpaid churn rates of 1.01% and 0.94%. Even though Sprint made dramatic churn improvements, "we still are not the best in class from an absolute point of view from every touch point," Hesse acknowledged. "So we still have a lot of improvement to be made."</p> <p>Also, port-outs did see a rise following AT&amp;T's launch in late June of the Apple iPhone 4 handset.</p> <p>"Hey, let's face it I would be not perfectly honest with you if I said every time Apple announces a new phone there is not an impact on the market," Hesse said, quickly adding that Sprint does have some buffer created by a strong smartphone handset lineup of its own.</p> <p><strong>ARPU flat</strong></p> <p>Meanwhile, Sprint's average revenue per user, however, continued to stagnate at $55 compared to $55 in the first quarter and $56 in the second quarter a year ago. Sprint is no longer officially reporting data ARPU, nor does it report a data revenue figure &ndash; so the only conclusion to draw is that the rise in data ARPU is being evenly offset by the drop in voice ARPU.</p> <p>Hesse said Sprint's ARPU is facing some pressure resulting from customers moving to lower-cost bundles plans such as the $99 Simply Everything and $69.99 to $89.99 Everything Data with Any Mobile Anytime plans. Not only do these plans consolidate voice, data and messaging services that cost less than paying a la carte, but they also eliminate overage charges that can contribute to ARPU.</p> <p>These customers, however, are far less likely to churn, so "net net overall, it is exceeding our business case overall," Hesse said.</p> <p>In addition, the data side of the business does appear to be growing, despite Sprint's decision not to report data ARPU or data revenue. In the second quarter, 58% of new sales and upgrades were smartphones or 3G multimedia phones, up from 57% in the fourth quarter. Smartphones and 3G phones now comprise about 41% of the postpaid customer base, Hesse said.</p> <p><strong>EVO 4G data usage ramps</strong></p> <p>Moreover, HTC EVO 4G handset owners consume about three times the data of their wireless peers. But Sprint does see lower cost for data flowing on the WiMAX network versus on its EV-DO 3G network, so for now there is no pressure from a cost or capacity standpoint to move to metered-rate data pricing.</p> <p>"Right now we have no plans to go to tiered data pricing," Hesse said. "That doesn't mean we won't. We will continue to monitor the situation."</p> <p>On the financial side, stagnant ARPU and continued postpaid subscriber losses once again hit the bottom line hard. The carrier posted total revenue of $8.03 billion, down from $8.09 billion in the first quarter and $8.14 billion in the second quarter last year. Sprint also stayed firmly in the red, posting a net loss of $760 million, down from the $865 million net loss in the first quarter but up compared to the $384 million net loss posted in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p><strong>Questions about Clearwire</strong></p> <p>Going forward, there are still significant questions regarding how Clearwire is going to find the remaining financing to complete its nationwide network buildout. For the most part, Hesse sidestepped questions regarding Sprint's 56% stake in the 4G network provider as well as prospects for consolidating the ownership now split between Sprint, partner cable operators and partner vendors.</p> <p>Hesse said Clearwire has an advantage in its partnership with the cable partners and vendor partners, taking advantage of the products and expertise they bring to the table. He also said Sprint supports Clearwire's planned 2010 network buildout to reach up to120 million people covered, and it will continue to work with the partners to explore network expansion and funding options.</p> <p>There may be money available for additional funding. Chief Financial Officer Bob Brust noted that Sprint's schedule of debts maturing in 2011 is relatively light, so it could have additional cash flow in 2011 to funnel toward other projects including the Clearwire buildout.</p> <p>"I think I'm pretty comfortable and that will work out well for the company," he said.</p> <p>Sprint also is looking at a new multimodal technology to more directly knit its CDMA network together with Clearwire's WiMAX network, and it now has issued a request for proposals for such a scheme from the technology vendor community. Details are limited and the idea is still in the early stages, but "our analysis to date looks promising, and we will share additional information when appropriate," Hesse said.</p> <p>In all, Hesse likened Sprint's turnaround to a baseball game, noting that "we are in the third inning."</p> <p>"We still have a lot of hard work ahead of us," he said.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4473http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4472http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/r-6rdfnkx_0/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comComcast posted a 6.1% increase in overall corporate revenue in Q2 '10, as solid cable gains were offset by a small $22 million charge related to its purchase of NBCU.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/r-6rdfnkx_0" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-07-28T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=10">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Comcast posted a 6.1% increase in overall corporate revenue in Q2 '10, as solid cable gains were offset by a small $22 million charge related to its purchase of NBCU.</p> <p>Overall revenue rose from $8.98 billion to $9.5 billion. Overall operating cash flow jumped 5.7%, from $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion.</p> <p>Core cable revenue rose 5.1%, from $8.52 billion to $8.95 billion. Operating cash flow rose 5.7%, from $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion.</p> <p>The MSO lost a record 265,000 basic subscribers, an increase from 214,000 in net losses a year ago, during a quarter which benefited from the broadcast digital transition.</p> <p>The company said June additions were softer, compared to last year, and that trend has continued into July, due to the economy, the competition and the rolloff of some single-product subscribers gained from last year's digital transition that netted 100,000 new subscribers a year ago.</p> <p>Digital additions reached 394,000, up from 250,000 a year ago as the MSO continued to benefit from its own cable all digital transition. The MSO added 154,000 advanced video customers (nearly 500,000 HD/DVR STBs) to reach 41.6% of total customers. Total digital penetration reached 82.9% in the quarter.</p> <p>The company rolled out four million digital adapters in the quarter and 4.6 million total digital STBs.</p> <p>Comcast added 118,000 high speed data subscribers, nearly double last year's gain of 65,000. HSD penetration is now 32.2%</p> <p> And VoIP additions were surprisingly solid, at 230,000, compared to last year's gain of 233,000, with penetration reaching 16.5%.</p> <p>Total ARPU rose to $127.78 from $118.32 a year ago.</p> <p>Ad revenue grew 20% in both the company's cable and cable programming.</p> <p>Business services revenue grew 54% to $306 million.</p> <p>The company has rolled out DOCSIS 3.0 in 80% of its systems. It's all digital transition has now hit 60% of systems.</p> <p>Capex came in at $1.1 billion, with modest spending increases expected for the balance of the year related to the SMB and cell backhaul business.</p> <p>On Title II, CEO Brian Roberts said "we feel pretty pleased there is a constructive dialog in this area with the FCC" that "can allow the businesses to go forward with some certainty."</p> <p>On IP video, Roberts said "the principal focus is in market. We have not seen other business models that make sense to us at this time out of market. In market, our focus is to give our customers the benefits of IP technology that can be in form of iPad app we showed at the Cable Show to control TV better, to more on demand online. The cross platform acceleration of that capability we continue to believe that is what is powering our broadband business. WiFi really helps the last foot, if you will. The last mile is best with our cable. We're pretty bullish on the consumption and usage and that's going to power our business."</p> <p>On wireless, the company has launched in seven markets covering 17 million homes.</p> <p>On Netflix, Roberts acknowledged that "they have done a great job. They offer a nice product. All we can do is try to make our products better," he said, referencing the Infinity rollout that carries with it a "significant leap forward on the amount of content." Netflix also does a "beautiful" job with search, Roberts said, which "is not easily done on our EPG but we're working to improve that."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4472http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4468http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/ovqSwA5WTvQ/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comRogers posted a 5% gain in revenue, to $3.03 billion, and an 11% gain in operating profit, to $1.2 billion, in Q2 '10 results released today.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/ovqSwA5WTvQ" height="1" width="1"/>Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-07-27T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=20">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Rogers posted a 5% gain in revenue, to $3.03 billion, and an 11% gain in operating profit, to $1.2 billion, in Q2 '10 results released today.</p> <p>The company's cable division posted 4% increases in revenue and operating profit to $790 million and $343 million, respectively.</p> <p>Basic additions were flat, compared to a loss of 19,000 a year ago. Digital additions rose slightly, from 8,000 to 11,000.</p> <p>The company turned its HSD additions around, from a loss of 4,000 a year ago to a gain of 7,000 in Q2 '10. Voice additions fell from 21,000 to 16,000. Circuit switched losses fell from 27,000 to 11,000.</p> <p>In total, RGU's rose by 23,000, versus a loss of 2,000 a year ago, partially because of improved churn results from targeted retention efforts. Rogers said basic churn was down 11 basis points, data 16 basis points and digital 26 basis points.</p> <p>Wireless revenue rose 5% to $1.7 billion, while operating profit rose 10% to $815 million.</p> <p>Postpaid net additions rose by 98,000, versus 148,000 a year ago.</p> <p>ARPU rose slightly, from $73.24 to $73.54. Churn also rose slightly, from 1% to 1.06%.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4468http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4466http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/Y8dFZavqOxs/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comEarthLink did not see a lot of improvement in the second quarter, as subscriber losses once again accelerated and overall revenue fell.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/Y8dFZavqOxs" height="1" width="1"/>Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-07-27T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=14">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>EarthLink did not see a lot of improvement in the second quarter, as subscriber losses once again accelerated and overall revenue fell.</p> <p>After a couple of quarters of relative improvement, EarthLink once again saw its broadband customer losses widen, shedding another 33,000 subscribers during the quarter. That was up compared to the 23,000 lost in the first quarter and 11,000 lost in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>At quarter's end, EarthLink held on to 748,000 broadband customers.</p> <p>In contrast, losses among narrowband customers moderated, totaling 74,000 compared to 91,000 lost in the second quarter and 131,000 lost in the prior second quarter. EarthLink's gross additions also slowed, falling to 66,000 from 77,000 in the first quarter and 120,000 in the prior second quarter.</p> <p>But the moderating overall losses were good enough to improve consumer churn to 3% from 3.1% in the first quarter and 3.6% in the second quarter a year ago.</p> <p><strong>Cable churn elevated</strong></p> <p>Within the broadband segment, DSL churn held at 1.9%, as it has been for some time. The cable churn is much higher at about 3%, but Chief Financial officer Brad Ferguson said that reflects that the cable base doesn't have as long of a tenure overall, given EarthLink has only been aggressively marketing for customers in that segment for a little more than a year.</p> <p>At the same time, EarthLink has attributed the overall downward trend in churn during the past few quarters to the fact that the customer base is more tenured. About 92% of the premium dialup customers have been taking EarthLink service for two years or more, with similar levels among broadband customers.</p> <p>"While we are not able to predict with certainty, whether the customer behavior within cohorts will continue to improve or flatten out or return to prior levels, we do expect that churn rates continue to benefit us as the base continues to be more tenured," said Chairman and CEO Rolla Huff, during the second quarter earnings call.</p> <p>And customers were contributing more monthly revenue as well, with average revenue per user rising to $21.57 from $20.91 in the first quarter and $20.75 in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>Marketing expenses also fell to $11.6 million, compared to $14.5 million in the prior second quarter. Despite that, the ISP did spend a bit more on advertising with MSO partners including Time Warner Cable. Huff said that would continue as long as the channel continued to produce business.</p> <p>"We're always happy to invest in marketing where we believe we're getting a return, and there is no question the cable channel &ndash; the affiliate channel &ndash; has been a strong channel for us," he said. "We have been and will continue to look for opportunities to invest in that channel, because we think that those are great revenue streams that create value for us."</p> <p><strong>Revenues still down</strong></p> <p>Despite improved churn and ARPU levels, EarthLink's total revenue intake remained suppressed. The ISP netted $153 million, down from $157.3 million in the first quarter and $185.6 million in the prior second quarter. About 60% of that came from broadband customers, up from 56% in the second quarter last year.</p> <p>Net revenue totaled $28 million, down from $26.7 million in the first quarter and $31.5 million in the second 2009.</p> <p>Given the overall revenue trends EarthLink's executives are not looking on their business as a future growth engine. Churn in the third quarter is likely to rise as it has in the past, and gains in customer churn and ARPU along with moderating narrowband subscriber losses could be short-lived.</p> <p>"We know that the EarthLink consumer access business will decline over time," Huff said. "Certainly we are pleased that adjusted EBITDA held essentially flat for two consecutive quarters, but as we discussed, our results will continue to be lumpy."</p> <p>Meanwhile, EarthLink is still on the lookout for acquisition opportunities in the Internet service provider and competitive provider space. It also is looking extend its reach among MSO customers beyond its comarketing agreement with Time Warner Cable.</p> <p>"We're looking for more opportunities," Huff said, adding that EarthLink filed a comment related to Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal, asking for certain conditions to open up markets to third-party broadband providers such as EarthLink.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4466http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4464http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/csmuJjLisxo/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comVerizon Wireless may not have equaled the net subscriber gains of rival AT&T Mobility, but it did post generally solid metrics for the first quarter, with improving churn rates and another healthy ramp in data revenue.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/csmuJjLisxo" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-07-26T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=28">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Verizon Wireless may not have equaled the net subscriber gains of rival AT&amp;T Mobility, but it did post generally solid metrics for the first quarter, with improving churn rates and another healthy ramp in data revenue.</p> <p>Verizon's 1.35 million net subscriber additions were strong, but not enough to beat arch rival AT&amp;T Mobility's 1.56 million net additions posted just a day earlier. It also was down compared to the 1.55 million net additions in the first quarter but an improvement from the 1.14 million additions in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>Of that, 665,000 were postpaid customers, up from 429,000 added in the first quarter but down from 1.08 million in the prior second quarter. Another 896,000 customers came from the reseller channel, which includes telco partner Qwest Communications International Inc.</p> <p>Those gains were partially offset by loss of 211,000 prepaid customers, reflecting Verizon's continued de-emphasis on the segment. That's up from 139,000 customers lost in the first quarter and a reversal from the 67,000 added in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>It should be noted that the net subscriber gains quoted reflect organic growth, but in reality Verizon actually lost subscribers sequentially thanks to divestiture in April and June of 1.7 million postpaid customers and 374,000 prepaid customers as part of the conditions imposed by the Federal Communications Commission on Verizon's acquisition of Alltel Corp.</p> <p>So at the end of the quarter, Verizon Wireless claimed 92.06 million subscribers, down from 92.8 million at the end of the first quarter &ndash; but still enough to keep it in the number one spot among U.S. carriers.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the number of connected data-only devices also grew, adding 264,000 connections during the quarter to total 7.76 million total connections ranging from vehicle tracking devices, e-readers and medical alert devices.</p> <p>Despite the divestiture losses, there is evidence Verizon is keeping its customers in the churn rate, which improved to 1.27% compared to 1.4% in the first quarter and 1.37% in the second quarter a year ago. Postpaid churn was even better, totaling 0.94% compared to 1.07% in the first quarter and 1.01% in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p><strong>Data booms again</strong></p> <p>On the revenue side, Verizon continued to ride the data growth wave, with data average revenue per user ramping to $17.85 from $16.71 in the first quarter and $14.96 in the second quarter a year ago. That pushed overall data revenue to $4.8 billion, up from $4.61 billion in the first quarter and $3.91 billion in the prior second quarter.</p> <p>Data growth was fueled in part as Verizon customers continued to move up the handset value chain, with 9% of customers upgrading their handsets &ndash; and the associated data plans &ndash; during the quarter. Among direct channel handset sales, 40% were smartphones while 15% were multimedia phones.</p> <p>At the end of the second quarter, 20% of the total customer base and 35% of retail postpaid customers had smartphones or multimedia devices, up from 31% in the fourth quarter and 26% in the fourth quarter 2009. Breaking that down the postpaid handset population further, 20% of Verizon customers have smartphones, while 15% have multimedia phones.</p> <p><strong>Sound handset lineup</strong></p> <p>During the second quarter earnings call, Chief Financial Officer John Killian went out of his way to stress that Verizon now has a competent portfolio of smartphones, including several Android-based handset such as the HTC Incredible and the newly released Motorola Droid X. Verizon Wireless' strategy going forward is to continue to offer a mix of phones based on various operating systems such as Android and BlackBerry, rather than focusing on one single brand &ndash; a veiled shot at rival AT&amp;T and its reliance on the Apple iPhone.</p> <p>More smartphones does mean higher subsidy expenses, but Killian said that was a nice tradeoff for increased data and service ARPU over time. The trick is to manage the subsidy costs to maintain good profit margins.</p> <p>"If we had one quarter where we had 3 million Droid net adds, there is probably going to be a little bit of an impact," he said. "By the way, I would take that impact, because of what it is going to do ultimately to increase value and shareholder value."</p> <p>But there was one somewhat surprising dark spot among Verizon Wireless' glowing data service numbers: The number of picture/video messages sent and multimedia files downloaded during the quarter actually dropped.</p> <p>Verizon customers sent just shy of 4.2 billion picture/video messages, down from 4.4 billion in the first quarter. Likewise, customers tapped more than 25 million music and video downloads during the quarter, down from 29 million in the prior quarter.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the number of text messages continued to rise, from 175 million in the first quarter to 180 million in the second. The implication from all of this is that customers apparently are still economically wary, cutting back on multimedia messaging and downloads that are are charged on a per-use basis. In contrast, they maintained their texting habits &ndash; given a majority of customers take a text messaging plan offering either blocks of messages or unlimited messaging, additional text messages would likely not result in additional fees.</p> <p>Overall, Verizon Wireless once again contributed healthy income to parents Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Plc. Total revenue hit $16 billion, up from $15.78 billion in the first quarter and $15.48 billion in the first quarter last year.</p> <p><strong>LTE preps for launch</strong></p> <p>Buildout of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G network as well as cellular backhaul upgrades also inflated wireless capital expenditures to $2.26 billion, up from $1.77 billion in the first quarter and $1.78 billion in the second quarter a year ago.</p> <p>Killian said that elevated spending on wireless capex would continue as Verizon Wireless builds out the LTE network.</p> <p>During the call, the issue of usage-based data pricing again surfaced, and based on Killian's response doesn't appear Verizon Wireless is readying to make the leap in the near future &ndash; although Killian did seem to leave the door at least open a crack.</p> <p>When asked about rival AT&amp;T's June 7 launch of data plans that set limits for usage, Killian said itt is too soon to gauge what the impact of that will be on the market, Killian said.</p> <p>"You haven't seen us rush out to make any kind of change," he said. "We'll continue to monitor the situation of course and look at opportunities that will say what's the best equation for us to drive long-term shareholder value, and we'll be very focused on that."</p> <p>But he did reiterate that the same rules probably would not apply to Verizon's launch this fall of LTE services, which is rumored to be set Nov. 15.</p> <p>"We have indicated in the past as we move to an LTE world and LTE pricing, we will probably look very hard at tiered pricing, and that continues to be our thinking right now," he said.</p> <p>On that front, Killian said the LTE buildout and launch plans are on schedule.</p> <p>"We feel very good about that. We think that is going to open up a whole new set of opportunities to continue to grow this wireless business that is, again, performing very well."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4464http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4463http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/dHIQzfAeoeU/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comVerizon posted a slight sequential uptick in FiOS TV and data additions in Q2 '10, despite seasonal headwinds, with 174,000 new TV and 196,000 new data subscribers in the quarter.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/dHIQzfAeoeU" height="1" width="1"/>Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-07-23T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=27">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Verizon posted a slight sequential uptick in FiOS TV and data additions in Q2 '10, despite seasonal headwinds, with 174,000 new TV and 196,000 new data subscribers in the quarter.</p> <p>The additions fall in line with the &quot;new normal&quot; running rate at FiOS, which is far below the go-go quarters of late 2008 and early 2009, but on par with the last three quarters. The 174,000 FiOS TV additions were far below the nearly record gain of 300,000 in Q2 '09. The same was true for the FiOS data gain of 196,000, which was far below Q2 '09's gain of 303,000.</p> <p>But the Q2 '10 numbers were higher than Q1 '10's gain of 168,000 (video) and 185,000 (data) subscribers, showing that even in the face of seasonal factors, FiOS performed well.</p> <p>The company added 300,000 homes to its home built tally of 15.9 million and 400,000 homes to its home marketed tally, which now stands at 12.4 million. As such, data penetration stands at 29.7% with 3.8 million subscribers and TV penetration stands at 25.9%, with 3.2 million subscribers.</p> <p>While AT&amp;T lost 64,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter, Verizon managed a gain of 28,000, as FiOS additions offset a loss of 168,000 DSL subscribers. Still, it was Verizon's lowest broadband gain on record. That compares to a total gain of 186,000 a year ago.</p> <p>The company also managed to curb its wireline phone losses, losing only 355,000 primary residential access lines, versus a loss of 456,000 a year ago.</p> <p>Total wireline broadband and video revenue reached $1.8 billion, up 20.1% from a year ago, led by a 33.2% gain in FiOS broadband revenue. FiOS now accounts for 43% of the company's wireline revenue.</p> <p>Consumer ARPU rose 11.4% to $80.76 in the quarter, led by FiOS ARPU that now stands at $145 per month, up 7% year over year.</p> <p>The company continues to lay off employees, as it shed 3,800 in Q2, after shedding 2,300 in Q1. Another 9,200 employees were transferred to Frontier Communications.</p> <p>Wireline capex of $3.3 billion in the first six months of the year is down $1 billion from a year ago, reflecting the slowdown in FiOS spending.</p> <p>The company continues to shift capex spending from wireline to wireless. CFO John Killian said overall capex in 2011 will be lower than 2010, as wireline capex continues to decrease. "I think we can take another bite out of that," he said.</p> <p>Killian said Verizon is lobbying in Washington as the FCC looks at Title II regulation and "we're optimistic it will come out in the right place for us."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4463http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4458http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/neUtWCOg5nk/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comAT&T Mobility had plenty to brag about in the second quarter with record low churn rates and record iPhone activations, but behind that bravado lurks a troubling downward trend in postpaid subscriber growth and indications the iPhone is no longer th<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/neUtWCOg5nk" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-07-22T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=52">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>AT&amp;T Mobility had plenty to brag about in the second quarter with record low churn rates and record iPhone activations, but behind that bravado lurks a troubling downward trend in postpaid subscriber growth and indications the iPhone is no longer the new-customer draw it once was.</p> <p>AT&amp;T added 1.56 million subscribers during the quarter, down from 1.86 million added in the first quarter but up compared to the 1.37 million added in the second quarter last year. That likely will keep AT&amp;T squarely in second place subscriber wise with 90.1 million customers behind Verizon Wireless.</p> <p>But while that would appear to be a strong result for a historically low-growth quarter, it once again camouflaged a negative trend in postpaid customer additions, which produce the most revenue long-term for carriers. Of the total net additions 496,000 were postpaid customers, down from 512,000 added in the first quarter and well off the 1.15 million postpaid customers added in the prior second quarter.</p> <p>AT&amp;T had far better success in the lesser-valued prepaid segment, where it saw net additions zoom to 300,000 compared to just 24,000 added in the first quarter and a net loss of 412,000 in the second quarter a year ago.</p> <p><strong>Connected devices drive additions</strong></p> <p>As in the first quarter, the bulk of the customer additions &ndash; 896,000 &ndash; came in connected devices, which range from data-only Apple iPads and e-eraders to medical alert devices and machine-to-machine connections. Of that, between 400,000 and 500,000 activations were among new iPad 3G customers.</p> <p>The 896,000 additions was down from the 1.05 million connected device additions in the first quarter but still ahead of the 304,000 net connected device additions in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the Apple iPhone had a record quarter, with 3.2 million activations, far outpacing the 2.7 million activations posted in the first quarter. Much of this could be attributed to June 24 launch of the iPhone 4, with a record 1.7 million sold in just the first three days.</p> <p>But it appears the iPhone is not pulling in new customers at the levels seen in prior quarters. Indeed, AT&amp;T has dropped mention of the percentage of new customers buying the iPhone 4 (which has in the past hovered around 33%), so it is likely the vast majority of the activations were among existing iPhone customers swapping their older model for the new version &ndash; so no real net gain in data ARPU or customer base &ndash; or AT&amp;T customers upgrading from other phone brands. That theory is backed up by the fact that postpaid subscriber growth dropped even as iPhone activations hit record levels.</p> <p>Despite the disappointing postpaid growth, AT&amp;T held on to more customers, with better churn numbers for the quarter. Overall churn coming in at 1.29% compared to 1.3% in the first quarter and 1.49% in the second quarter a year ago. Postpaid churn also improved to 1.01%, down from 1.07% in the first quarter and 1.07% in the second quarter last year.</p> <p><strong>Data strong now, but could drop</strong></p> <p>Wireless data again boosted AT&amp;T's revenue intake, although the effects of the carrier's switch to usage-based data plans June 7 not fully reflected in the results for the second quarter given the period ended June 30. Still, data average revenue per user totaled $16.61, up from $15.98 in the first quarter and up from $14.57 in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>AT&amp;T now counts 29.7 million 3G postpaid integrated devices activated or 53.2% of its total postpaid base. That's up from 26.8 million devices in the first quarter and 15 million in the second quarter a year ago.</p> <p>"I believe that integrated devices at some point will get into the 70 (to) 80 percent range of the base, and maybe higher," said Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner, during the second quarter earnings call. "That's just the direction that the market is going."</p> <p>Growth in data ARPU stabilize overall ARPU despite continued voice ARPU declines. Total ARPU was $50.02, an improvement from the $49.81 ARPU level in the first quarter but still down from $50.70 in the second quarter last year.</p> <p>In the near term, however, the new usage-based data plans &ndash; which for smartphone users replaces the $30 monthly unlimited data plan with choice of a $15 monthly plan offering 200 MB usage or a $25 monthly plan offering 2 GB usage &ndash; could actually ding data ARPU growth.</p> <p>"I'll tell you on a macro basis is what it will do is put a little bit of pressure on ARPU and data growth in the near term as some customers migrate down to the lower price points," Lindner acknowledged.</p> <p>In fact, AT&amp;T has already seen some customers abandon their $30 unlimited plan in favor of the $15 plan, although the rate of these downgrades is at the lower end of AT&amp;T's original estimate. But the big surprise is that some $30 unlimited plan customers have actually opted to downgrade to the $25 2GB plan as well. Also, a good number of new smartphone customers are opting for the lower $15 plan, Lindner added.</p> <p>Still, many of these customers had no data plan in the past, so "we are seeing the benefit of lowering the point of entry, so customers are moving into the integrated devices," he said. As time goes on, AT&amp;T expects that "they will migrate up to the $25 data plan."</p> <p><strong>iPad enters the picture</strong></p> <p>In contrast, Lindner noted that between 75% and 80% of the new iPad 3G customers have opted for the $25 data package. He added that data consumption among iPad 3G customers is more or less as expected, slotting in between usage levels for the typical iPhone customer and the typical wireless laptop data user.</p> <p>The one big surprise has been the level of interest the iPad is generating among business customers, Lindner said. In particular, many companies are looking at arming their mobile employees with iPads rather than conventional laptops.</p> <p>"Right from the beginning with the iPad we've had a number of our business customers express interest and there are a number of trials going on," he said. "There is a lot of interest in using them for their business. I think we will be doing much more of that going forward."</p> <p>Data service growth boosted AT&amp;T's Mobility's data revenue intake to $4.38 billion from $4.12 billion in the first quarter and $3.44 billion in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>And total revenue also continued to rise, hitting $14.24 billion compared to $13.9 billion in the first quarter and $13.25 billion in the second quarter a year ago. Net revenue came in at $4.11 billion, a drop from $4.17 billion in the first quarter but ahead of the $3.15 billion net income in the prior second quarter.</p> <p><strong>Network upgrades, LTE plans on track</strong></p> <p>On the expense side, AT&amp;T has so far spent about $1 billion of the estimated $2 billion earmarked this year for upgrades to its embattled network. As in the first quarter, the carrier was quick to point out recent performance improvements, which in the second quarter included a 32% and 47% increase in download speed between in areas where its new HSPA 7.2 upgrade and fiber backhaul connections are now in place. 3G dropped calls were down 23% in Manhattan and 13% in the New York City metro area during the quarter, while blocked calls fell 39% in Manhattan and 21% in New York.</p> <p>The carrier now plans to ramp the speed further with an upgrade to HSPA+, which can theoretically produce download speeds of 21 Mbps compared to HSPA 7.2's 7.2 Mbps theoretical throughput. AT&amp;T plans to launch the HSPA+ upgrade by the end of the year, with Long Term Evolution (LTE) trials set to start in the next few months.</p> <p>AT&amp;T is still on track to launch LTE service in 2011, Lindner noted.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4458http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4457http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/RLE7ZzUQ9wc/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comAT&T added 209,000 U-verse TV subscribers in Q2 '10 results released today, its lowest quarterly net additions in two years.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/RLE7ZzUQ9wc" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-07-22T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=1">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>AT&amp;T added 209,000 U-verse TV subscribers in Q2 '10 results released today, its lowest quarterly net additions in two years.</p> <p>The 209,000 gain compares to 248,000 additions a year ago and 231,000 additions in Q1 '10. Although Q2 is typically the slowest quarter for multichannel platform providers, AT&amp;T's 15% drop in growth in year four of its U-verse rollout roughly coincides with the drop in growth Verizon saw with its FiOS TV product in its fourth year of operation.</p> <p>AT&amp;T said it's attach rate for U-verse data continues to run above 90%, suggesting at least 188,000 U-verse DSL additions in the quarter, but that is also lower than last year's 223,000 additions and Q1's 208,000 additions.</p> <p>AT&amp;T lost 64,000 wireline broadband customers in total, suggesting a net loss of 252,000 traditional DSL customers. That would be the first posted loss of data customers in AT&amp;T history.</p> <p>"We did have a weaker broadband number in the second quarter to two things," CFO Rick Lindner said.</p> <p>In addition to normal seasonality, Lindner said "we also have seen competitors become more aggressive with promotions targeted especially at our non-Uverse areas. We will respond and are responding to those in a targeted fashion in terms of offers and promotions. We're also building infrastructure this year and IP DSLAMs in non-U-verse areas, [where we] can offer more robust data speeds and have a strong broadband offering in those areas."</p> <p>"Our outlook as we go forward is that we should see some improvement in those overall broadband numbers," he continued. "At the same time, we continue to be very pleased with U-verse performance and we'll also see a bit stronger results in U-verse going forward."</p> <p>"The ability to use pair bonding will expand our reach, will bring more homes that we can reach with the U-verse product and more homes that we can market into."</p> <p>Lindner also made the point that "not all revenue connections are created equal." The connections the company is losing are lower revenue voice and data units, he said, while U-verse packages and bundled subscribers represent higher revenue growth.</p> <p>"Where we're gaining connections, we're gaining connections with customers who are buying multiple products," Lindner said. "They are buying higher speed data products and high end video packages."</p> <p>Overall consumer broadband ARPU was up 5% year over year, he said.</p> <p>U-verse Voice is helping AT&amp;T's wireline phone business, with 183,000 VoIP additions up from 176,000 a year ago. The company lost 853,000 residential phone subscribers in total, suggesting a traditional circuit-switched loss of 1,036,000 lines.</p> <p>"The product continues to scale nicely and attach rates remain very high," Lindner said.</p> <p>The company said more than 75% of U-verse TV subscribers take three or four AT&amp;T services. ARPU for U-verse triple play customers was nearly $160, up 13.8% year over year and up 6.8% from the first quarter of 2010.</p> <p>U-verse now passes 25 million living units, with penetration remaining stable at 13%. The company said in markets where U-verse has been active for at least 30 months, penetration is 22%. U-verse revenue exceeded $1 billion in the quarter.</p> <p>The company lost 74,000 DBS subscribers in the quarter, compared to a modest gain of 5,000 subscribers a year ago.</p> <p>Asked about buying DirecTV, Lindner said there was "nothing imminent" with DirecTV, repeating the standard</p> <p>"We've felt very good about the path we're on," he said, referring to U-verse. "You continue to see the growth in the U-verse platform and the strength of that is in its ability to provide a full bundle of products over a common infrastructure. You've seen the improvement it is making in our consumer revenue business. We're following the right path with respect to our consumer business."</p> <p>Lindner said consumer IP revenue grew 32% and now represents 40% of consumer revenue. It was the second quarter of sequential growth in wireline revenue growth, he said.</p> <p>"We expect U-verse revenue to continue to grow and margins to improve," Lindner said.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4457http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4438http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/evBPI9KtzGc/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comT-Mobile went back to its losing ways on the subscriber front in the first quarter, posting a 77,000 net loss amid mixed results that also included improving churn and data average revenue per user but falling revenue.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/evBPI9KtzGc" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 12 May 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-05-12T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=24">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>T-Mobile went back to its losing ways on the subscriber front in the first quarter, posting a 77,000 net loss amid mixed results that also included improving churn and data average revenue per user but falling revenue.</p> <p>After a fourth quarter that saw subscriber gains thanks to strong holiday sales, T-Mobile's customer trend shifted downward again, shedding 77,000 net customers in the first quarter. That's a reversal compared to the 371,000 added in the fourth quarter and 415,000 added in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p>As in the past few quarters, the culprit could be found in the postpaid business, which lost another 118,000 subscribers in the segment, up from 117,000 in the fourth quarter and a reversal from the 160,000 subscribers added in prior first quarter. By the end of the quarter, the postpaid base had dropped to 26.6 million.</p> <p><strong>Postpaid turnaround &lsquo;elusive'</strong></p> <p>During parent company Deutsche Telekom's first quarter earnings call, CEO Rene Obermann said the key to stabilizing postpaid growth in the U.S. carrier operation, "is elusive."</p> <p>"We're not satisfied with the first quarter, but the market was also weaker," he said. "We have to improve customer loyalty &ndash; a better mix of offers, consumer friendly prices and the offer of terminal devices. We think this will stabilize performance in the second quarter."</p> <p>Prepaid did help offset the postpaid losses, but even that growth was markedly slowed. T-Mobile added 41,000 prepaid customers, well off the 488,000 in the fourth quarter and 255,000 in the first quarter last year. At quarter's end, T-Mobile's prepaid subscriber base had grown to just shy of 7.07 million.</p> <p>In all, T-Mobile's total wireless subscriber base totaled 33.7 million.</p> <p>Despite the net customer loss, churn actually improved to 3.1% from 3.3% in the fourth quarter and was consistent with the 3.1% churn rate in the first quarter a year ago. Postpaid churn also improved, totaling 2.2% compared to 2.5% in the fourth quarter and 2.3% in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p><strong>Data service provides lift</strong></p> <p>T-Mobile's data service, however, continued to make steady gains. Wireless data average revenue per user came in at $10.90, up from $10.20 in the fourth quarter and $9.40 in the first quarter a year ago. That boosted total data revenue to $1.1 billion from $1.03 billion in the fourth quarter and $935 million in the first quarter a year ago.</p> <p>T-Mobile's 3G network now covers 208 million POPs, with 1,437 cell sites added in the first quarter. The number of data-capable 3G handsets also grew to 5.2 million, up from 3.9 million in the fourth quarter.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the carrier is moving forward with its HSPA+ upgrade offering up to 21 Mbps downlink. That service is now launched in Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, Long Island, suburban Washington, D.C., with Los Angeles to follow soon.</p> <p>T-Mobile's goal is to extend HSPA+ to 185 million POPs by the end of the year.</p> <p>In contrast, lagging voice usage once again hampered total wireless ARPU, which came in at $46, the same as in the fourth quarter and down from $48 in the first quarter last year.</p> <p>The data revenue also couldn't halt T-Mobile's declining revenue trend. Total revenue was $5.28 billion, down from $5.41 billion in the fourth quarter and $5.4 billion in the prior first quarter. Net income, however, rose to $362 million from $306 million in the fourth quarter and $322 million in the first quarter a year ago.</p> <p>Whether T-Mobile reverse its revenue decline remains uncertain. The carrier has put every effort into growing data revenue and pushing mobile Internet services while also working on customer loyalty and churn, Obermann. With that, and a slowing rate of the revenue decline from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, "overall, I should say I am not so skeptical."</p> <p><strong>4G plans</strong></p> <p>Obermann also was repeatedly asked about reports T-Mobile was in discussions with private equity firm Harbinger Capital Partners regarding the latter's announcement of plans to build an a nationwide 4G network using radio spectrum it owns. But he declined to comment on the reports, instead insisting that T-Mobile was in a good position in the U.S. market.</p> <p>"We have network capacity which we can operate at full capacity and we are very strong in the U.S.," Obermann said. "The cash figures show very clearly that we are well positioned there."</p> <p>But he did leave the door open for the possibility of partnerships to build a 4G service using Long Term Evolution.</p> <p>"In the U.S. it is necessary to continue expanding the network, which is why we have concluded several network roaming agreements with other providers in the U.S.," he said. "Whether there is good opportunity to set up such partnerships then we will have to examine it closely &ndash; no question about it, because definitely capex requirements for rollout in the U.S. are very high."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4438http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4434http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/gtTkBDoeJ0M/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comDish Network continued its surprising turnaround story, adding 237,000 new subscribers in Q1 '10, after losing 94,000 in the same period a year ago.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/gtTkBDoeJ0M" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 10 May 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-05-10T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=13">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Dish Network continued its surprising turnaround story, adding 237,000 new subscribers in Q1 '10, after losing 94,000 in the same period a year ago.</p> <p>Gross additions rose to 833,000 from 653,000 a year ago.</p> <p>The growth did come at a cost, as SAC rose to $741 per subscriber, versus $659 a year ago.</p> <p>"Certainly the industry has gotten more competitive," Ergen said. "There is more discounting on the programming side."</p> <p>"The return on a new subscriber is not what it was five to six years ago," he added. Dish looks to balance SAC, churn and ARPU to determine "which subscribers you make a profit on. You have to be a little more selective today."</p> <p>While Dish has benefited from DirecTV referencing Dish in its ads, Ergen said the company tries to keep its competitive comparative focus against cable MSOs.</p> <p>Revenue increased 5% to $3.06 billion, and operating income rose 13.9% to $457 million.</p> <p>Churn fell from 1.83% to 1.4%, and ARPU edged up from $70.03 to $71.18 per month.</p> <p>Dish went to a two-year commitment in February 2008, so those first subscribers are starting to rolloff, but churn was still down. "We are making improving customer service and that will also flow through," EVP Tom Cullen said.</p> <p>The ARPU rise stemmed from the "minor hardware fee adjustments," a slight uptick in premium and pretty good uptick in PPV events in the past couple of months, Cullen said.</p> <p>In the past three quarters, Dish has added 727,000 subscribers to DirecTV's 355,000 subscribers.</p> <p>Ergen struck a somewhat cordial tone on TiVo. "I've always said it seems like we should be working together with TiVo," Ergen said. "We have a lot of respect for TiVo. It's always been a case of an honest disagreement with how our DVRs work." Dish is waiting on a possible full en banc court review and it also has another workaround in place in front of a Texas court.</p> <p>Ergen reminded analysts that it books more than $100 million in revenue for TiVo for current TiVo subscribers. "We are joined at the hip," he said. "If we don't get a deal done, those fees go away for them&hellip;A strong Dish Network is beneficial to TiVo. There is a logic to us working together." Ergen added it hasn't really thought about buying TiVo, although that has been bandied about by analysts.</p> <p>The company continues to research its 700 Mhz options. "We're evaluating a number of things at 700 Mhz," Ergen said, including tests with broadcasters, observing how Qualcomm does with its mobile video service and its own internal development.</p> <p>The company also will wait to see how net neutrality and the National Broadband Plan shakes out, he said.</p> <p>"We don't want to spend a lot of capex without a plan," Ergen said.<br /> <br /> Asked about rate increases later this year, Ergen reiterated "We have room to do that."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4434http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4430http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/COux-occp3A/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comQVC posted an 11% increase and Starz a 3% increase in Q1 '10 revenue in results released by Liberty Media Group today.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/COux-occp3A" height="1" width="1"/>Fri, 07 May 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-05-07T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=34">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>QVC posted an 11% increase and Starz a 3% increase in Q1 '10 revenue in results released by Liberty Media Group today.</p> <p>QVC domestic revenue rose 10% to $1.16 billion, and adjusted OIBDA rose 15% to $261 million.</p> <p>Starz Entertainment revenue rose 3% to $305 million, a $9 million increase from a year ago. Rate increases accounted for $3 million and subscription unit growth $6 million. Encore units rose 500,000 and Starz 200,000 in the quarter, due increasing confidence in the economy, CEO Chris Albrecht said.</p> <p>Adjusted OIBDA fell 2% to $106 million, due to a slight uptick in SG&amp;A expenses.</p> <p>On Netflix, Albrecht continued to tow a middle line. "Netflix is an interesting opportunity and challenge for Starz. It's important to manage those relationships across the board," he said, citing new and historical distribution partners.</p> <p>"It certainly is a marketing opportunity. We are looking for ways to maximize the ability to increase the awareness and subscriber [base] of Starz products while still being able to enhance our value to all our distributors," he said. "It's an interesting and complicated relationship."</p> <p>Chairman John Malone was asked about the FCC's new Title II-based Internet regulatory push.</p> <p>He noted that the guidelines on future set-top box development "was heavily influenced by Silicon Valley. How that will come out politically, you can take odds on that. The unbundling of terrestrial broadband could be beneficial to DirecTV and EchoStar, giving them the opportunity to bundle with cable broadband. I'm not enough of a prophet to figure out where this is all going. It's too speculative for anyone to bet one."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4430http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4425http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/exSLe1sYQvo/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comThe financials were strong but DirecTV's Q1 '10 results reflected the continued slowdown in RGU growth.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/exSLe1sYQvo" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-05-06T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=12">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>The financials were strong but DirecTV's Q1 '10 results reflected the continued slowdown in RGU growth.</p> <p>The company added only 100,000 new subscribers in Q1 10, an appreciable difference from the gain of 460,000 a year ago, a quarter in which DirecTV acknowledged it overshot its subscriber addition target, but it also benefited from the digital TV transition.</p> <p>The lower net additions were driven by lower gross additions--925,000 versus 1,175,000 from a year ago.</p> <p>There was a surprising uptick in churn to 1.48% from 1.33%, and SAC rose from $708 to $768.</p> <p>But CFO Pay Doyle said "we're quite pleased with this churn level," which is line with the company's 1.5% to 1.6% churn expectations for the year." The competitive market is more challenging than a year ago, he added.</p> <p>Still, the financials were very strong as revenue rose 11% to $4.77 billion at DirecTV U.S. ARPU increased 6.4% to $85.47 per month, aided by price increases (accelerated by one month this year), higher equipment revenue and an extra week of NFL Sunday Ticket.</p> <p>CEO Michael White said the company is seeing "encouraging trends" in premium, PPV and advertising, which he attributed to better execution and an increasingly willingness by consumers to purchase additional content.</p> <p>"Net subscriber additions were in line with our internal expectations," White said, adding that marketplace remained "very competitive."</p> <p>The telco channel, which represented 25% of gross additions a year ago, dipped to below 20% in Q1 '10, Doyle said, as FiOS and U-verse rollouts expand and telcos see fewer incoming calls to call centers as landline losses continue.</p> <p>Churn levels are a bit higher in FiOS and U-verse areas, White allowed.</p> <p>The Verizon-DirecTV subscribers inside the territories being sold to Frontier Communications will remain with DirecTV "for several years," White said. Talks continue with CenturytTel, which uses Dish and has bought Qwest, a DirecTV affiliate.</p> <p>Despite those trends, But White believes "there is still plenty of growth in the pay TV market" as DirecTV takes advantage of planned innovations.</p> <p>"We're not expecting a negative quarter on net adds," White said, "and churn appears to be improving over the first quarter a bit."</p> <p>White noted several important new product launches, including the national HD feeds of Univision and Telefutra, the launch of new HD channels to reach 160, MR DVR rollout staring May 10 and the rollout of 3D channels in June, including ESPN's 3D World Cup coverage and DirecTV's own N 3D channel.</p> <p>DirecTV will also add more PPV and VOD movie choices to its DirecTV Cinema service this summer, White said.</p> <p>"We're cautiously optimistic that we'll see favorable growth trends," he said, if the housing market improves and the competitive landscape remains stable. The company also has launched more targeted marketing tactics to drive subscriber growth.</p> <p>White said upgrade and retention costs were down 20%, a strategy that did produced slightly higher churn. Call center costs were down 5%.</p> <p>Some 70% of new subscribers signed up for HD and or DVR service, up from 60% a year ago.</p> <p>"SAC was slightly higher than we'd like," White said, as the company responded to competition in the quarter.</p> <p>Operating profit more than doubled from $397 million to $808 million.</p> <p>Free cash flow jumped from $500 million to $967 million.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4425http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4423http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/d7wTq3TwIMA/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comCharter Communications posted a pro forma 4.5% increase in Q1 '10 revenue, boosted by solid RGU results that were 100,000 additions higher than a year ago.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/d7wTq3TwIMA" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-05-06T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=7">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Charter Communications posted a pro forma 4.5% increase in Q1 '10 revenue, boosted by solid RGU results that were 100,000 additions higher than a year ago.</p> <p>Net income was $251 million, versus $334 million a year ago.</p> <p>Charter lost 23,400 basic subscribers, the same as a year ago. Most of those were video only.</p> <p>Digital additions reached 95,800, more than triple last year's gain of 25,600. Charter said VOD orders were up 30% from a year ago.</p> <p>The company added 103,700 HSD subscribers versus a gain of 71,900 a year ago. Data ARPU was up 2.6% to $42.31.</p> <p>Phone additions came in at 66,900 versus 70,400 a year ago, and phone ARPU fell 3.8% to $41.69 per month.</p> <p>CEO Mike Lovett the RGU growth stems from a continued increase on the bundle "and the fact we've been increasing speeds in the Internet product, driving a value and superior product message."</p> <p>Lovett acknowledged satellite operators made some headway against Charter during the early phases of the bankruptcy proceeding, moreso through messaging, than increased ad spend.</p> <p>The current telco video overlap ranges between 25% and 29%, Lovett said with the vast majority AT&amp;T, as Verizon only accounts for 2% to 3%.</p> <p>Overall ARPU increased 9% to $120.45.</p> <p>Commercial revenue rose 10.3% to $118 million, and ad revenue rose 9.3% to $59 million.</p> <p>The MSO said it will rollout DOCSIS 3.0 to 50% of systems and switched digital video to 60% of systems by yearend.</p> <p>The MSO is trialing all digital in a few markets, but Lovett stopped short of saying Charter would undergo a complete conversion soon. "There are a number of ways to reclaim bandwidth," Lovett said, indicating Charter may mix and match bandwidth savings techniques, depending on the system.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4423http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4421http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/c51_Ivhj7HU/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comCablevision Systems Corp. posted a 5.2% revenue increase to $1.75 billion in Q1 '10, boosted by cable division growth of 5.6%.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/c51_Ivhj7HU" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-05-06T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=6">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Cablevision Systems Corp. posted a 5.2% revenue increase to $1.75 billion in Q1 '10, boosted by cable division growth of 5.6%.</p> <p>Consolidated adjusted operating cash flow grew 7.6% to $610 million and consolidated operating income grew 21.6% to $355 million.</p> <p>Core cable system revenue rose 5.6% to $1.343 billion, and operating income jumped 19.6% to $350 million.</p> <p>The MSO added 900 basic subscribers after losing 6,300 a year ago.</p> <p>Digital still grew despite a 94.8% penetration rate with a gain of 12,000, versus 9,400 a year ago.</p> <p>Strength continued in data, with 42,000 HSD additions, versus a gain of 29,800 a year ago.</p> <p>Phone additions fell from 51,400 to 43,000 in the quarter.</p> <p>Overall ARPU rose to $146.15 per month, up 7%.</p> <p>Advanced advertising revenue grew nearly 50% in the quarter, COO Tom Rutledge said.</p> <p>The company continues to expand its WiFi rollout, with new offerings to small businesses, he said, as well as the new handoff agreement with Time Warner Cable and Comcast.</p> <p>The company has been experimenting with voice service over WiFi via dual mode devices. "There is clearly an opportunity to build products there, said Rutledge, with "an integrated product with our existing voice service that could be an attractive additional value for our customers."</p> <p>The MSO has started the rollout of RS DVR in New York City. Rutledge allowed that "that does have some capital implications but those are still better than the physical DVR capital."</p> <p>"The storage piece and the copying piece is not the major economic driver of the infrastructure. The main factor is streaming capacity in the network."</p> <p>He reiterated that RS DVR is more efficient overall (no truck rolls, for instance), than deploying DVRs in consumer homes.</p> <p>On telco video, Rutledge said, "it's still a very competitive environment," but added "there is less footprint expansion in our area, there is less Greenfield territory for them to market to, so less of a base from which to get customers who are already dissatisfied."</p> <p>The company plans to test a PC to TV media relay trial in June/July, with an eye toward a commercial launch early next year.<br /> </p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4421http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4411http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/HYZ03XCnClA/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comCenturyLink Inc. saw some improvement in its first quarter statistics, as line loss fell and broadband subscriber growth hit a record 70,000 additions, but overall revenue and net income declined.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/HYZ03XCnClA" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-05-05T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=15">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>CenturyLink Inc. saw some improvement in its first quarter statistics, as line loss fell and broadband subscriber growth hit a record 70,000 additions, but overall revenue and net income declined.</p> <p>CenturyLink again saw red with its voice line service, losing another 126,000 business and residential lines in the quarter. That was down from 146,000 lost in the fourth quarter and 132,000 combined lines lost by the former CenturyTel and Embarq in the first quarter 2009, before the merger.</p> <p>During the first quarter earnings call, CEO Glen Post said there was a drop in the number of port-outs among voice customers, as well as improvements in customer service metrics such as first call resolution in the former Embarq markets. In individual markets, CenturyLink saw improvements in line port-out rates in Nevada, North Carolina, Northern Florida, Central Florida and South Florida.</p> <p><strong>VoIP competition levels</strong></p> <p>Chief Operating Officer Karen Puckett added that line losses were also notably less in urban markets, although CenturyLink did not provide an exact breakout. At the same time, cable competitors made no real marketing strategy changes during the quarter, nor was there any notable expansion of cable voice-over-IP services in CenturyLink's territory.</p> <p>"So I think they are leveling off there," she said.</p> <p>CenturyLink does not break out business and residential voice line counts, but at quarter's end, CenturyLink claimed 6.9 million combined voice lines.</p> <p>Data services provided more encouraging results, with CenturyLink adding a record 70,000 customers, up from 47,000 pro forma added in the fourth quarter and 64,000 added in the first quarter 2009. The 70,000 additions were the most for any first quarter for the combined companies, and it raised CenturyLink's data customer count to 2.3 million.</p> <p>CenturyLink's DSL service penetration rate now stands at 35% of total access lines.</p> <p>Post said the uptick in data additions in the quarter was driven by an aggressive broadband strategy, including launch of a data-only "naked DSL" service and aggressive marketing. But with much higher penetration "we expect it to be more difficult to maintain this growth rate going forward," he said.</p> <p><strong>Lower Q2 data additions expected</strong></p> <p>In fact, CenturyLink is projecting that its second quarter DSL additions will be in the range of 32,000 to 36,000. The second quarter is traditionally a lower period for additions for CenturyLink, driven in part by winter residents in Florida moving back north and therefore shutting off service.</p> <p>Post acknowledged that CenturyLink also is seeing more competition from cable operators particularly in markets where MSOs have rolled out higher-speed DOCSIS 3.0 data services.</p> <p>"But we have our own bundles that brings real value," he argued. At the same time, CenturyLink also has extended fiber deeper into its network to boost bandwidth for broadband services, "so we feel good that we can compete with the cable companies."</p> <p><strong>IPTV rollout continues</strong></p> <p>The rollout of CenturyLink's fledgling IPTV now available in La Crosse, Wis., and in Columbia and Jefferson City, Mo. also will help, given so far about 85% of IPTV customers are also taking CenturyLink DSL services, Post added.</p> <p>In video, however, subscriber growth did tail off somewhat, as the telco added another 33,000 Dish Network customers. That's up from 32,500 added in the fourth quarter and 30,800 pro forma added in the prior first quarter. At quarter's end, CenturyLink's penetration of video customers stood at 12.9% of total access lines.</p> <p>While the CenturyLink is still not releasing any subscriber counts for its IPTV service, Post repeated previous plans for launch of two additional unnamed markets. Originally CenturyLink had planned to do so by the end of 2010, but now it has pushed that date into early 2011.</p> <p>Nevertheless, Post said CenturyLink is encouraged by the improving economics of IPTV, as costs for set-top boxes continue to fall.</p> <p>"The technology works well, and we look forward to expansion," Post said. The IPTV rollout will add $30 million to CenturyLink's operational cost, but "we believe it is an important part of our future and w will be continuing the investment in the quarters ahead."</p> <p><strong>Wireless strategy TBD</strong></p> <p>As Qwest CEO Ed Mueller had earlier in the day, Post declined to comment on reports that Harbinger Capital Partners is seeking wireless service partners via its SkyTerra subsidiary's satellite wireless spectrum.</p> <p>"We know that they are there and folks have been talking to them, but we don't have any comments at this point," he said. But CenturyLink remains open to options for creating a more direct wireless service play and "we think wireless is important to our future."</p> <p>Indeed, the prospects of gaining even more scale with the Qwest acquisition does give CenturyLink more power to possibly partner with other wireless providers, perhaps beyond Qwest's existing reseller agreement with Verizon Wireless. But while CenturyLink would like to get closer to owner economics to drive better deals and terms, acquisition of a provider isn't necessarily in the cards.</p> <p>"We have no plans right now to go buy a wireless provider or satellite or video provider," said Chief Financial Officer Stewart Ewing. "Those are potential options for us, but we really are not looking at that right now."</p> <p>Overall, revenue trends for the new CenturyLink looked an awful lot like the old declining revenue trends the late CenturyTel and Embarq. Total revenue came in at $1.8 billion, down from $1.84 billion in the fourth quarter and$1.93 billion pro forma in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p>Net income came in at $279.2 million, down from $286.7 million in the fourth quarter and $282.2 million pro forma in the fourth quarter a year ago.</p> <p>Meanwhile, CenturyLink expects to have the integration of Embarq markets and backoffice systems complete by the third quarter 2011. That will slightly overlap the expected closure of the Qwest acquisition some time in the first half of 2011.</p> <p>If that deal closes, CenturyLink expects the integration of Qwest systems and markets will take between three and five years.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4411http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4410http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/ZCEV02eT_Sc/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comQwest Communications International Inc. needed to make a strong first quarter showing following the announcement of its acquisition by fellow telco CenturyLink Inc., but a rundown of the numbers indicates it fell somewhat short, with the usual line l<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/ZCEV02eT_Sc" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-05-05T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=19">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Qwest Communications International Inc. needed to make a strong first quarter showing following the announcement of its acquisition by fellow telco CenturyLink Inc., but a rundown of the numbers indicates it fell somewhat short, with the usual line losses combined with middling broadband data and video gains and drops in revenue and net income.</p> <p>Another quarter, another drop in residential voice lines for Qwest. But in the first quarter the drain did appear to slow, as Qwest lost 166,000 consumer lines, down slightly from down from 167,000 lost in the fourth quarter and 221,000 in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p>During the first quarter earnings call, Qwest Chief Operating Officer Teresa Taylor noted that Qwest is doing a better job at retention, and that could be seen in the fact that the absolute consumer access line losses were the lowest since the fourth quarter 2007.</p> <p>At quarter's end, Qwest held on to 5.5 million residential access lines.</p> <p><strong>FTTN rises, DSL falls</strong></p> <p>Qwest's efforts to push broadband services produced better results sequentially, as the telco added 40,000 customers, up from 23,000 in the fourth quarter but down from 42,000 in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p>Once again, Qwest's fiber-to-node service offering up to 20 Mbps downstream connections contributed most of the growth, adding 60,000 connections, in a mix of new subscribers and existing customers upgrading to the service. That is down compared to the 80,000 added in the fourth quarter and 63,000 added in the prior first quarter.</p> <p>That did, however, raise the overall FTTN customer base to 480,000. FTTN now constitutes about 17% of the total mass market data customer base, up from 14% in the fourth quarter. The service now passes 3.8 million homes in Qwest's service territory.</p> <p>As in the past few quarters, the larger FTTN additions compared to overall broadband data additions means Qwest's vanilla DSL service is losing ground &ndash; to the tune of 20,000 in the quarter. Taylor, however, didn't position that as necessarily a defeat.</p> <p>"We are seeing the DSL footprint shrink &ndash; in some cases because we are making it shrink by moving customers into FTTN," she said. "And it is very competitive, so at the lower end there has been an increase of competitive activity by the cable companies &ndash; which is somewhat surprising that they have come down market, if you want to think of it that way."</p> <p>In return the growing FTTN service is having a positive revenue impact, given FTTN customers generate about 15% more in data ARPU compared to conventional DSL customers.</p> <p>At quarter's end, Qwest claimed 2.85 million broadband customers.</p> <p><strong>Video growth falters</strong></p> <p>In video, Qwest added 11,000 new DirecTV customers, well behind the 18,000 added in the fourth quarter and 34,000 added in the first quarter a year ago. That brought the subscriber base to 951,000.</p> <p>It also added 84,000 wireless customers, up from 64,000 in the fourth quarter and 30,000 in the first quarter 2009, for a total of 922,000 subscribers.</p> <p>While Qwest gave no sequential figures for average revenue per customer, Taylor did note that the $62 ARPU for the first quarter was a 7% increase from the prior first quarter. That was primarily driven by customers increasingly upgrading their data speed tiers, as well as success in selling add-on services such as the Qwest At Ease computer backup and security service.</p> <p>But despite the rising ARPU and FTTN service mix, declining residential voice lines and losses in enterprise revenue contributed to another drop in overall revenue. Qwest took in $2.96 billion in revenue, down from $2.99 billion in the fourth quarter and $3.17 billion in the first quarter last year. Net income also dropped, hitting just $38 million compared to $108 million in the fourth quarter and $206 million in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p><strong>CenturyLink merger on track</strong></p> <p>Much of the call was dominated by the news of Qwest's pending acquisition by CenturyLink Inc. in a $10.6 billion stock deal plus $11.8 billion in acquired debt. CEO Ed Mueller said the two companies are just beginning the pre-integration planning discussions, although until the merger is finalized the two companies must operate as separate entities.</p> <p>He noted the merger will involve a relatively small amount of service territory overlap, but "at this point, I think we are very optimistic that this will get closed in a nice way and speedily."</p> <p>In the week leading up to the earnings call, reports also had surfaced that Harbinger Capital Partners, which recently acquired controlling interest in satellite phone network provider SkyTerra, is planning to offer wholesale 4G wireless service using a portion of SkyTerra's mobile satellite communications spectrum. When asked if Qwest had explored the possibility of partnering with SkyTerra, Mueller predictably demurred.</p> <p>"We are staying with our strategic goals we laid out in February, where we would always take any kind of look at how we would improve the wireless," he said. "But we love our relationship with Verizon Wireless."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4410http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4402http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/EdLyS7m2KFA/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comTime Warner Cable posted a 5.4% in revenue to $4.6 billion, and a 10.9% increase in OIBDA to $1.7 billion in Q1 '10 results that were boosted by solid RGU results and increased rates.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/EdLyS7m2KFA" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-04-29T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=26">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Time Warner Cable posted a 5.4% in revenue to $4.6 billion, and a 10.9% increase in OIBDA to $1.7 billion in Q1 '10 results that were boosted by solid RGU results and increased rates.</p> <p>The MSO lost 42,000 basic subscribers, versus a gain of 36,000 a year ago, which benefited from the digital transition. Digital additions came in at 102,000, versus 121,000 additions in Q1 '09. Digital penetration is now 70%.</p> <p>High-speed data additions were slightly lower, at 212,000 versus 225,000 a year ago, with penetration at 35%.</p> <p>The MSO added 1,000 wideband subscribers, with 11% taking the company's Turbo product. The percentage of subscribers on TWC's basic and light tiers have declined as a percent of its overall HSD base.</p> <p>And phone additions dropped from 166,000 to 86,000 in Q1 '10.</p> <p>Total RGU additions reached 378,000, and churn was down across the board</p> <p>TWC added 155,000 bundled subscribers, versus 206,000 a year ago.</p> <p>The company added 111,000 DVR and 282,000 HD subscribers, versus gains of 130,000 and 386,000 a year ago. DVR penetration passed 50% in the quarter.</p> <p>Total ARPU rose to $105.17 from $99.56 a year ago.</p> <p>Capex fell to $736 million, or 16% of revenue. The company is finishing up its switched digital video rollout, with final expansion in New York, Dallas and Los Angeles.</p> <p>Ad revenue climbed 19.3% to $173 million. Commercial revenue rose 19.2% to $254 million.</p> <p>COO Landel Hobbs said AT&amp;T now has launched U-verse in 21% of its footprint and Verizon FiOS in 10%. The rate of expansion and penetration has slowed, he said. While offers remained competitive, Hobbs said competitive ad spending was flat to down.</p> <p>"Video subscriber losses to telcos continued to decline modestly in our footprint," Hobbs said, and "we performed better against satellite."</p> <p>Hobbs said 25% of the wideband subscribers are new to TWC and that 20% of all new commercial customers are taking the upper level DOCSIS 3.0 speed tiers.</p> <p>TWC is rolling out those wideband speeds to its commercial customers, adding Dallas this week and Cincinnati, Buffalo, Syracuse and Charlotte, N.C.</p> <p>CEO Glenn Britt said the company has no plans to implement any usage-based pricing, noting that the industry continues to evolve. Conversely, usage-based pricing appears to be destined to launch in the wireless space, he said.</p> <p>The company will launch WiMax in Kansas City, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York and Los Angeles later this year.<br /> </p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4402http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4397http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/fCOJj8tFDx8/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comSprint Nextel Corp.’s first quarter showed some small signs of a long-promised turnaround, as revenue rose for the first time in 11 quarters and the lowest rate of net customer decline in more than two years.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/fCOJj8tFDx8" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-04-28T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?ID=23">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Sprint Nextel Corp.'s first quarter showed some small signs of a long-promised turnaround, as revenue rose for the first time in 11 quarters and the lowest rate of net customer decline in more than two years.</p> <p>But curiously, the carrier was strangely quiet regarding wireless data service performance, and in fact has opted not to discontinue reporting wireless data average revenue per user statistics &ndash; all of which clouds Sprint's wireless data strategy going forward.</p> <p>On the subscriber side, Sprint once again managed to slow its ongoing subscriber loss, mostly thanks to gains in its prepaid subscriber base. Overall, the carrier lost just 75,000 customers, down from 148,000 in the fourth quarter and 182,000 in the first quarter 2009. That's the least amount of customer defections since the third quarter 2007.</p> <p>However, postpaid subscriber losses continued to hurt Sprint, with 578,000 lost in the quarter. That was up from 504,000 lost in the fourth quarter but far less than the 1.25 million postpaid subscribers lost in the first quarter last year. A majority of that loss once again came from the iDEN network, which shed 447,000 postpaid customers compared to 131,000 CDMA customers lost.</p> <p>The fact the iDEN network continues to be a customer loss boat anchor again raised questions about its long-term viability. But during the first quarter earnings call, CEO Dan Hesse argued it's not time to throw the towel in on the network technology &ndash; not just yet, anyway.</p> <p>"There's no question that we are losing postpaid customers at a more rapid rate on iDEN than on CDMA," Hesse said. But starting last year, Sprint has started funneling some prepaid customer traffic onto the network, "but as a combination of postpaid and prepaid traffic volumes come down, we will look at, and with new technology &ndash; we can potentially used very small pieces of the freed up iDEN spectrum for CDMA and CDMA capacity and CDMA coverage. So we are looking at that as well."</p> <p>Looking farther ahead, however, Hesse did not rule out the idea of selling off or shutting down the iDEN network.</p> <p>"We will continually look at what's the best utilization of our spectrum assets and what are the best technologies available to provide the applications that our customers want," Hesse said. "You may read or see things that Sprint is considering over the long term. We will always evaluate all of our options."</p> <p><strong>Big plans for prepaid</strong></p> <p>At the other end of Sprint's wireless business, prepaid gains helped offset some of the postpaid losses. Sprint added 348,000 prepaid customers in that segment, down from 435,000 added in the fourth quarter and 674,000 added in the prior first quarter.</p> <p>There's no doubt Sprint is placing strong bets on prepaid services. It is preparing in the in the next few weeks a new multi-brand strategy expanding on its existing Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and newly launched low-income Assurance Mobile services, the latter of which is now available in five states.</p> <p>Hesse noted that industry wide, 54% of customers that decide to switch service now choose a prepaid plan &ndash; which bodes well for Sprint as it seeks to expand its market share in the segment.</p> <p>"I think we're going to really start to pick up prepaid momentum in the second half of the year," he said. "So our turnaround is really focused on both prepaid becoming a more and more important part of the company and doing better in that market, but also we are making improvements in the postpaid side."</p> <p>That does raise the specter of cannibalization, as postpaid customers could potentially convert to prepaid plans and therefore contribute less in monthly revenue. But Hesse argued that Sprint positions prepaid and postpaid in different customer channels, thereby cutting down on that threat.</p> <p>"Of course, there always will be some cannibalization, but net-net it's always better to have postpaid customer looking at prepaid to choose your offer as opposed to someone else's," he said. "I think what's happening as an industry is that prepaid as a whole is beginning to cannibalize postpaid. It's growing at a much faster rate. I don't think our prepaid offers, based on what I've seen, disproportionately cannibalize our postpaid versus anyone else's because we generally are in different channels."</p> <p>The carrier also gained 155,000 wholesale and affiliate customers, an improvement from the 79,000 lost in the fourth quarter but off the 394,000 gained in the first quarter last year.</p> <p>At quarter's end, Sprint held on to 48.06 million wireless customers.</p> <p>Sprint's churn metrics were mixed, as postpaid churn came in at 2.15%, down from 2.11% in the fourth quarter but an improvement from the 2.25% churn rate in the first quarter 2009. Prepaid churn, meanwhile, was 5.74%, up from 5.56% in the fourth quarter but down from 6.86% in the first quarter a year ago.</p> <p><strong>Mum on data gains</strong></p> <p>Unfortunately, Sprint has decided discontinue providing wireless data ARPU. Given Sprint has never broken out revenue from data services, this potentially eliminates any means to assess how well Sprint's data services are faring among consumers or how much it is contributing to the bottom line &ndash; even as it continues to expand its 4G wireless rollout in step with partner/subsidiary Clearwire Inc.</p> <p>However, Sprint Chief Financial Officer Bob Brust noted that postpaid data ARPU did rise 3% sequentially from the fourth quarter's $16.75 level, so a calculation puts Sprint's postpaid data ARPU for the first quarter at about $17.25. That compares to $15 postpaid data ARPU in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p>One of the few data-related results from the quarter came from handset sales, as 57% of all customer phone upgrades were smartphones or touch-screen phones. Also, Sprint did launch its 3G/4G Overdrive device, which allows customers to create a mini Wi-Fi hotspot for up to five devices using either the 3G CDMA network or the 4G Clear WiMAX network as the backhaul.</p> <p>The device has been recognized with at least one industry award, and "it's becoming a very popular accessory for the Apple iPad as well," Hesse said.</p> <p>Hesse also left the door open for tiered data pricing, providing a range of prices based on usage rather than the unlimited plans that tend to dominate wireless handset data plans. AT&amp;T executives have been hinting at the possibility of such plans as well.</p> <p>"We are thinking about it, but we'll announce any changes to pricing when we're ready to do that. But it's clearly something worth contemplating and analyzing," Hesse said.</p> <p>Data ARPU gains didn't offset likely voice revenue declines, as overall ARPU held flat at $55, compared to $55 in the fourth quarter and $56 in the first quarter last year.</p> <p>Sprint's financial picture did brighten somewhat as total revenue rose sequentially to $8.09 billion from $7.87 billion in the fourth quarter, although that was still behind the $8.21 billion revenue gathered in the first quarter a year ago. But Sprint was still unable to pull out of the red zone, posting a net loss of $865 million compared to $980 million in the fourth quarter and $594 million in the first quarter 2009.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4397http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4396http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/CRgickVMBOo/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comComcast posted a 3.8% increase in revenue and improved RGU results in Q1 '10, paced by strong digital subscriber growth.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/CRgickVMBOo" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-04-28T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=10">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Comcast posted a 3.8% increase in revenue and improved RGU results in Q1 '10, paced by strong digital subscriber growth.</p> <p>RGUs topped one million, at 1,017,000, compared to 837,000 a year ago, led by digital additions of 427,000, versus 288,000 a year ago. The company's all-digital conversion continues, as penetration passed the 80% mark in Q1 '10.</p> <p>Comcast lost 82,000 basic subs in the quarter, on par with last year's loss of 78,000, which is despite a larger telco video footprint and Q1 &lsquo;09's boost from the broadcast digital TV transition.</p> <p>Comcast added 353,000 HD/DVR customers (600,000 advanced STBs deployed), down from 452,000 a year ago, but enough to put it past 50% of all digital customers. Digital has now been rolled out to 70% of all Comcast systems.</p> <p>Comcast said it's approaching 20,000 total VOD choices, 3,000 of which are HD titles.</p> <p>HSD and phone also saw improved results. HSD additions rose to 399,000 from 329,000 a year ago. Phone additions totaled 275,000, from 298,000 a year ago.</p> <p>Customers taking higher speed tiers are 2.5 times those taking one of the MSOs' economy tiers.</p> <p>DOCSIS 3.0 is now available in 80% of Comcast systems. The company offers 50 Mbps to 40 million homes and will soon begin to rollout 100 Mbps service.</p> <p>Some 20% of subscribers are taking 16 Mbps tiers or above.</p> <p>Growth is accelerating, even after 10 years, COO Steve Burke said, which is remarkable. "The need for very, very large broadband capacity, partly related to video and gaming seems to continue to grow steadily," he said. "Our speed is so significantly superior to DSL and that shifts the competitive balance."</p> <p>On WiMax, the company will add Boston and Houston launches in Q2, to the five markets already launched.</p> <p>Ad revenue rose 23.5% in the quarter, boosted by the return of automotive advertising. Business services revenue rose 49% to $263 million.</p> <p>Total RPU rose 6.3% to $122.98 per month, from $115.71 a year ago.</p> <p>Triple play penetration stands at 29% up from 25% a year ago. Triple play sell-in in March was its highest in the past 12 months.</p> <p>The company is seeing solid reductions in churn, Burke said. "Our products and services are better today than a year ago," he said, adding that there are fewer non pay disconnects with better screening and the pace of RBOC expansion has moderated.</p> <p>"Housing hasn't picked up in any material way in any of our markets," Burke said. "It's not getting worse." There has been a slight pickup in PPV and premium, Burke said, but the most dramatic change in the economy has been the pickup in ad sales. The resurgence is across the board, Burke said, local, regional and national and "in almost every big category that we track. That is a very striking indication that companies are feeling better about their prospects and they are prepared to spend."</p> <p>On addressable advertising, Burke said "Canoe is progressing quite well." The current focus is on EBIF applications and will have 7 million homes on line by June then 20 million to 30 million ramp "pretty quickly."</p> <p>On 3D, CEO Brian Roberts said very much at the very beginning of 3D in the home.</p> <p>"The incremental price to get a 3D is a fraction at what HD started at," Roberts said. 3D may get initial traction as an events business, he said, looking at the premium experience and revenue opportunity from the theaters. Comcast delivered a 3D feed of the masters, to both TVs and PCs, which was very successful, he added.</p> <p>All that propelled total revenue forward 3.8% to $9.2 billion. Operating cash flow increased 3.5% to $3.6 billion.</p> <p>Core cable revenue rose 3.5% to $8.68 billion. Net income rose 12% to $866 million, as Comcast drove down costs in HSD and phone.</p> <p>Capex fell to $925 million, from $1.16 billion a year ago, and represented but 10.1% of revenue, down from 17% a year ago.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4396http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4387http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/H5aHYijKbAo/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comVerizon Wireless’ first quarter was far from ordinary, with a major change in customer mix of its 1.55 million net gains overshadowing continued data revenue and overall revenue gains.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/H5aHYijKbAo" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-04-22T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=28">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Verizon Wireless' first quarter was far from ordinary, with a major change in customer mix of its 1.55 million net gains overshadowing continued data revenue and overall revenue gains.</p> <p>Verizon Wireless added 1.55 million net new subscribers in the quarter, down from 2.24 million in the fourth quarter but ahead of 1.26 million in the first quarter 2009. Of that, 423,000 were retail postpaid customers, a massive drop from 1.16 million in the fourth quarter and 969,000 in the first quarter last year.</p> <p>In the past, the majority of Verizon's net customer gains have been postpaid customers, so the quarter represents a significant shift. Even worse, Verizon added just 288,000 direct retail customers, an even bigger drop compared to the 1.23 million retail additions in the fourth quarter and 1.26 million net additions in the prior first quarter.</p> <p>In prepaid, Verizon Wireless lost 139,000 customers, a reverse from the 67,000 gained in the fourth quarter and 300,000 gained in the prior first quarter. That winnowed the overall prepaid customer base to 5.2 million.</p> <p><strong>Mystery postpaid drop</strong></p> <p>During the first quarter earnings call, Verizon Chief Financial Officer John Killian offered few explanations for dramatic decline in postpaid customer gains, apart from typical seasonality. Verizon Wireless does typically see a drop in retail postpaid net additions between 25% and 30% in the first quarter, but this year, "the decline was magnified. But we did not see any significant shift in market share, overall porting ratios or any increase in churn," he said.</p> <p>That said, going forward "we believe we can do better from a postpaid perspective than we did in Q1," he said. "We are not ready to throw the towel in to say that postpaid growth is going to be substantially lower."</p> <p>He acknowledged that with wireless penetration now rising beyond 90%, "we don't think we are going to have 2 million (net postpaid customer addition) quarters. But we think we can do better than we did in Q1."</p> <p>Killian also argued that going forward, the looming LTE launch would provide some competitive boost, and as more Verizon Wireless customers buy into smartphones, "it will be a very nice transition into the LTE launch."</p> <p>With postpaid retail subscriber gains down and prepaid subscribers tailing into the negative, the lion's share of the carrier's new customers came from the reseller channel, which added 1.3 million customers during the quarter, up from 1 million in the fourth quarter. As with drop in postpaid customer additions, Killian said the jump in net reseller additions "is not surprising given typical prepaid seasonality."</p> <p>"The reseller channel is a low-cost channel for us, and an effective way for us to attract the incremental prepaid customer," he added.</p> <p>Verizon Wireless did make some progress in turning its churn trend around, posting a total churn of 1.4%. That's down from 1.42% in the fourth quarter and 1.47% in the first quarter a year ago.</p> <p>Better news came from wireless data, as revenue hit $4.5 billion, up from $4.33 billion in the fourth quarter and $3.65 billion in the prior first quarter. Data ARPU climbed to $16.71, up from $16.04 in the fourth quarter and well ahead of the $14.16 in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p><strong>Broadband devices proliferate</strong></p> <p>The growth in data revenue was driven by the rising percentage of 3G capable phones among Verizon Wireless' customer base. About 36% handset purchases through Verizon's direct sales channel consisted of smartphones, and at the end of the first quarter, more than 30% its postpaid base had 3G multimedia devices or smartphones &ndash; up from 26% at the end of 2009. Of that 17% had smartphones and 13% had 3G multimedia devices.</p> <p>"We believe customer demand for data mobility will only increase as we further strengthen our device lineup and feature innovative applications and content," Killian said.</p> <p>In addition, about 8.6% of the postpaid base upgraded handsets in the first quarter, up 14.8% from the prior year. Given those upgrades involved phones that now require either a $29.99 or $9.99 monthly data plan, "this is extremely positive from a churn and ARPU accretion perspective," Killian noted.</p> <p>Verizon Wireless followed rival AT&amp;T Mobility's lead by releasing for the first time a rundown of its alternative device connections, which total 7.3 million e-readers, vehicle tracking and telematics devices, wireless-capable consumer electronics, smart grid solutions and medical alert devices.</p> <p>Devices going forward will include all sorts of devices, including "essentially anything that has a wireless chip in it," Killian said. "Looking ahead, particularly when we commercialize LTE, the proliferation of these type of devices will be another source of incremental wireless growth."</p> <p>Data may be on the upswing, but falling voice ARPUs once again weighed down overall ARPU, which totaled $50.15, down from $50.23 in the fourth quarter and $50.74 in the first quarter last year.</p> <p>The financial bottom line was also strong for Verizon Wireless, as it netted $15.78 billion in total revenue, up from $15.25 billion in the fourth quarter and $15.25 billion in the first quarter a year ago.</p> <p><strong>Vodafone sale?</strong></p> <p>None of the analysts on the call asked for any LTE updates, but Killian did field an almost required question these days regarding whether Verizon would consider buying out partner Vodafone's 45% interest in Verizon Wireless, thereby simplifying the ownership. There has been recent speculation those talks may be under way, and even rumors that Verizon might consider a merger with Vodafone.</p> <p>"We've never made a secret of the fact that under the right conditions and the right terms, of course we would be interested in buying out the minority interest of 45%," Killian said, adding that such a transaction would depend heavily on the price and the benefit to Verizon.</p> <p>"I don't know where that will go, but our view is pretty clear from that perspective," he said.</p> <p>That may have left the door open for a buyout of Vodafone's stake, but at the same time Killian also appeared to throw cold water on the idea of a merger with Vodafone.</p> <p>"We're not convinced there is industrial logic behind putting the two organizations together &ndash; by the way, not that we're not open to listening and hearing new information on that, but we do not see a significant level of synergies," he said. "Cross border mergers have not been historically highly successful. A lot of management complexity comes with that. So while we are always interested to hear about that, we don't see the industrial logic."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4387http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4386http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/-I2UYCHY_ik/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comVerizon added 168,000 FiOS TV and 185,000 FiOS data customers in Q1 '10, which represented drops of 44% and 38%, respectively, from near record highs one year ago.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/-I2UYCHY_ik" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-04-22T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=27">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Verizon added 168,000 FiOS TV and 185,000 FiOS data customers in Q1 '10, which represented drops of 44% and 38%, respectively, from near record highs one year ago.</p> <p>The slowdown in FiOS deployment and maturation of the business is reflected in FiOS new growth rates, which have fallen to between 150,000 and 200,000 for the past three quarters. Still, CFO John Killian said "FiOS continues to be very successful.&quot;</p> <p>A year ago, Verizon added 299,000 FiOS TV and 298,000 FiOS data subscribers.</p> <p>The company announced FiOS TV penetration now stands at 25.2%, with 12 million homes marketed and 15.6 million homes passed. The company also said its 18 million home homes passed target will extend beyond the end of 2010, giving it time to complete the franchise builds in many urban cities, including New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.</p> <p>"Since the company has already secured video franchises to meet this target, it is spreading the passing of remaining premises several years past 2010," the company said.</p> <p>"We're very focused on growing penetration and the build plan is still on path to about 18 million premises within the franchised territory," Killian said. "We will pass about 1 million homes this year, this give or take 100,000 to 200,000 on either side. We'll have a little more to do in 2011 and maybe 2012. We felt that was appropriate where the economy was. Don't read this at all that we are not satisfied with FiOS. We are very satisified with FiOS."</p> <p>Killian said there will be a stronger focus in driving penetration in the MDU environment in 2010. "I don't believe we have had enough focus there," he said, "and it's a cost effective way to drive new subscribers."</p> <p>FiOS data penetration stands at 28.8% with 12.6 million homes marketed.</p> <p>The company lost 95,000 DSL subscribers, up from 46,000 in losses a year ago.</p> <p>But there was better news on the landline side, as Verizon cut its residential line loss to 388,000 in the quarter, versus 462,000 a year ago.</p> <p>Killian reiterated that FiOS continues to payoff for the company. "The profitability continues to improve. We have been operating income positive for the past few quarters." Current cost metrics "has positioned us very well. We have a great foundation here for the wireline side for the future." After the Frontier sale, 70% to 80% of Veizon's footprint will be covered in fiber, he said. "That's going to position us well for the future."</p> <p>"We're making sure we have the capital discipline within the wireline business. We have suffered from the economy and are focusing on investing at the right level.</p> <p>Despite cable's introduction of DOCSIS 3.0, Killian said the company hasn't seen any real change in the competitive market. "It's a very competitive environment. I don't see anything this quarter or this year that has really shifted. We did better in Q1 than in Q4. We continue to do reasonably well here. We'd like to drive the numbers a little higher, and with the economy coming back we are positioned for that. Customer satisfaction and independent reports continue to put FiOS at the top of the list. You're incenting people to change. That's the trick for us."</p> <p>Total wireline broadband and video revenues were $1.7 billion in the quarter, up 22%, with FiOS revenue up 44%, YOY. FiOS now represents 41% of revenue, versus 30% a year ago.</p> <p>Consumer ARPU for wireline services was $78.45 in the quarter, up 12.3%, as FiOS ARPU rose 5% to $142. The ARPU growth is coming from rate increases and VOD revenue improvement.</p> <p>The company laid off 2,300 wireline employees in the quarter, and its overall workforce, at 114,000 is down 14,000 year over year, and 28,000 since January 2008.</p> <p>For the year, Killian said Verizon will likely be able to lay off more than the 13,000 it had planned, given new contracts with two East Coast unions.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4386http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4382http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/0Cpa7thIPBc/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comAT&T continued to produce steady U-verse growth in Q1 '10, although RGU results were lower than a year ago.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/0Cpa7thIPBc" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-04-21T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=1">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>AT&amp;T continued to produce steady U-verse growth in Q1 '10, although RGU results were lower than a year ago.</p> <p>The company added 231,000 U-verse TV subscribers, versus a gain of 284,000 a year ago. U-verse broadband attach rates were "well above" 90%, AT&amp;T said, or roughly 208,000 additions, which compares to 284,000 additions in Q1 '09. U-verse VoIP attach rates have climbed to 75%, the company said, translating to 191,000 additions in Q1, compared to 170,000 a year ago.</p> <p>"U-verse continues to scale and we had a nice rebound on broadband net additions," CFO Rick Linder said. "U-verse is providing a steady transformation of the consumer business."</p> <p>Overall wired broadband additions reached 255,000, suggesting AT&amp;T added 47,000 DSL subscribers in the quarter. A year ago, however, AT&amp;T added 75,000 DSL subscribers. Over that past nine quarters, the only quarters AT&amp;T has added DSL subscribers have been the first quarters of fiscal years 2008, 2009 and 2010.</p> <p>Linder said AT&amp;T saw a "nice rebound" in both DSL and U-verse broadband, aided by seasonality.</p> <p>"Across our broadband product set, churn rates are down. We did have better performance in DSL. We're offering a very good set of options for customers across our footprint. They have the option with broadband to bundle a video product. They have the option to bundle a voice product and we give them the option to bundle wireless or wireline voice or both. We're seeing good traction with VoIP."</p> <p>"We are also increasing speeds in broadband," he added, with 24 Mbps speeds with U-verse and 6 and 10 Mbps speeds in nonU-verse areas.</p> <p>Linder added that data ARPUs are also increasing. "That reflects the fact customers are continuing to migrate up" to higher speed tiers.</p> <p>Some 59% of the company's broadband subscribers are on data tiers that are 3 Mbps or higher, he said. "We expect that to continue. As applications and customer demand continues to increase, we'll see customers migrate up in speed," adding that that trend will improve profitability.</p> <p>U-verse TV penetration of homes marketed remains at 13%, the company said, with 2.295 million subscribers across a homes marketed base of roughly 17.6 million. The company said it's built out to 24 million homes, about 80% of its 30 million home goal.</p> <p>The company lost 47,000 DBS subscribers in the quarter.</p> <p>Some 75% of U-verse subscribers are in triple or quad bundles, the company said.</p> <p>AT&amp;T said U-verse now constitutes a $3 billion a year revenue stream, and will end the year at a $4 billion run rate. U-verse is aiding overall wireline consumer revenue, which only fell 1.3% in Q1 '10, compared to a drop of 6.9% a year ago. Some 37% of wireline consumer revenue is U-verse related.</p> <p>"On the U-verse side of things, when you look at U-verse customers in total and the products they are buying and you step back and look at recurring margins in those customers, we're driving profitability levels at an EBTDIA basis equal to or better than overall wireline margins levels," Lindner said.</p> <p>Linder said that while installation costs dilute current U-verse earnings, those installation costs will fall as a percent of overall costs over time. "We're not going to slowdown with U-verse. We'll continue to drive good growth in U-verse and the U-verse platform on video and broadband and VoIP. Over time, as installation costs become a smaller piece of the overall U-verse revenue stream, we'll start to see the lift in profitability. We have been encouraged looking at recurring levels and margins. It's at reasonable levels today and has been growing pretty nicely."</p> <p>AT&amp;T lost 699,000 residential phone subscribers in the quarter, which includes U-Verse VOIP additions, plus losses circuited primary and secondary line losses, compared to 869,000 in losses a year ago.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4382http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4381http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/Ri3sZyTA4kM/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comOn the surface, AT&T Mobility once again made strong gains in the first quarter with ramping data revenue, lowering churn and 1.86 million net new subscribers – but those glowing results masks a sharp drop- off in postpaid net additions and a stagnan<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/Ri3sZyTA4kM" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -06002010-04-21T00:00:00-06:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=52">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>On the surface, AT&amp;T Mobility once again made strong gains in the first quarter with ramping data revenue, lowering churn and 1.86 million net new subscribers &ndash; but those glowing results masks a sharp drop- off in postpaid net additions and a stagnant overall customer ARPU level.</p> <p>AT&amp;T lured in another 1.86 million wireless customers, down from 2.66 million added in the fourth quarter but ahead of the 1.23 million added in the first quarter 2009. But as in the fourth quarter, there was trouble to be found in the customer segments &ndash; most notably, only 512,000 new additions were the high-revenue postpaid customers, down sharply from 841,000 postpaid customers added in the fourth quarter and 897,000 added in the prior first quarter.</p> <p>At the same time, AT&amp;T did add prepaid wireless customers for the first time in eight quarters, netting 24,000 new accounts compared to 58,000 lost in the fourth quarter and 155,000 lost in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p>But when asked if AT&amp;T foresaw a boom in prepaid while postpaid growth dwindled, AT&amp;T Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner deflected, arguing instead that the real growth won't be in prepaid services.</p> <p>"Our expectation is postpaid net adds will come down from prior levels, and we are seeing a continued shift in wireless revenue to broadband data," he said. "We are seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of the opportunity for connected devices."</p> <p>Indeed, the lion's share of the additions once again came from connected devices, a new category that includes e-readers, GPS devices and medical monitoring devices. That segment added 1.05 million new subscribers, down from 1.39 million in the fourth quarter but well ahead of the mere 144,000 connected device subscribers added in the first quarter 2009, before the wave of wireless broadband-connected e-readers hit the market.</p> <p>"While ARPUs for connected devices are typically low, the churn and margin characteristics are quite attractive, and it's an important growth area," Lindner added. "We believe the range of devices that will be connected wirelessly in the future will be both broad and deep."</p> <p>Overall, AT&amp;T claimed just shy of 87 million wireless customers at the end of March.</p> <p>And the Apple iPhone continued to draw in strong numbers, with 2.7 million activations of the industry-leading handset in the quarter, with about a third of the activations among new customers to AT&amp;T. The intake was down from the 3.1 million activations in the fourth quarter but up compared to the 1.6 million activations in the prior first quarter.</p> <p>AT&amp;T postpaid customer activated 3.3 million 3G-capable phones during the quarter. At the end of the quarter 26.8 million of the carrier's 61.5 million postpaid customers &ndash; or 41.2% - had 3G phones, up from 31.9% in the prior first quarter.</p> <p>But not all was well in the broadband business. Despite all of the glowing attention to overall wireless data, AT&amp;T once again saw only minor growth in its broadband laptop card customer base, adding just 23,000 new subscriptions there. That compares to 20,000 added in the fourth quarter and still well off the 112,000 air card accounts added in the prior first quarter.</p> <p>While residential laptop data card services are part of AT&amp;T's lineup, the segment is still dominated by business users &ndash; and the suppressed growth rates reflect the fact that businesses have not emerged as yet from the economic downturn. Still, the overall laptop data customer count rose to a little more than 16 million.</p> <p><strong>Churn improves again</strong></p> <p>As in the past few quarters, AT&amp;T did see improvement to its churn rate, which came in at 1.3% compared to 1.44% in the fourth quarter and 1.6% in the prior first quarter. Postpaid churn totaled 1.07%, down from 1.19% in the fourth quarter and 1.2% in the first quarter a year ago.</p> <p>Wireless data ARPU was a strong story for AT&amp;T, rising to $15.98 from $15.56 in the fourth quarter and well ahead of the $13.64 data ARPU level in the first quarter 2009.</p> <p>Despite the customers and data revenue gains, however, AT&amp;T continued to see a drag on its overall wireless ARPU, which fell to $49.81 compared to $50.69 in the fourth quarter and $50.11 in the prior first quarter. Once again, voice ARPU was the misfiring cylinder, but because of recent changes to how AT&amp;T reports its wireless subscriber segments, it is not possible to calculate the exact voice ARPU rate.</p> <p>Still, evidence of the decline in voice usage could be found in the average subscriber minutes of user per month, which fell to 660 from 670 in the fourth quarter and 691 in the prior fourth quarter.</p> <p>Nevertheless, AT&amp;T Mobility contributed a healthy $13.9 billion to parent AT&amp;T's coffers in the quarter, up from $13.84 billion in the fourth quarter and $12.86 billion in the first quarter 2009. Of that, data revenue was again the strongest buoy, totaling $4.12 billion compared to $3.87 billion in the fourth quarter and $3.18 billion in the first quarter last year.</p> <p>Wireless net income totaled $4.17 billion, up from $3.58 billion in the fourth quarter and $3.45 billion in the first quarter a year ago.</p> <p>AT&amp;T's overall revenue mix once again shifted toward wireless, which contributed 45% of the telco's total income, up from 42% in the first quarter last year.</p> <p><strong>Network upgrades continue</strong></p> <p>As promised, AT&amp;T did boost its spending on wireless infrastructure improvements including cellular backhaul upgrades and installation of HSPA 7.2 base station throughout its network. All told, wireless capital expenditures rose 34% year-over-year, although AT&amp;T once again did not release the actual dollar amount.</p> <p>With the upgrades there are some variations in performance in certain locations, "so the lines on some of the charts are not smooth, but the trends are clear," Lindner said.</p> <p>With activation of the HSPA 7.2 base stations and backhaul upgrades so far, That includes a significant improvement in data speeds, with a 25% increase overall in download speeds compared to the levels in the first quarter 2009 &ndash; and up 14% in the past 90 days. In areas where AT&amp;T has completed the fiber upgrades for backhaul, the speed improvements have come in between 32% and 47%.</p> <p>On the voice side, AT&amp;T also has seen fewer dropped calls in Manhattan and New York, which improved 6% and 9% respectively.</p> <p>Lindner gave no updates as to the rollout of HSPA 7.2 technology or its launch plans for 4G LTE. But he was asked about whether AT&amp;T would consider moving to tiered data that set more thresholds for usage and curb the high-usage "bandwidth hogs" on the network. He acknowledged that certain customer usage rates are far in excess of peers at a time when data demands on the network have never been greater, but he backed away from committing to any specific strategy to modify data usage among customers.</p> <p>"When you look at all of these things and an industry, I think it will influence how in the future the pricing models develop," he said. "As an industry, what the industry has to do is develop models that the customers can understand and that customers can live with, and at the same time is fair to the customers."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4381http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4369http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/uRwbJUlIOMA/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comInsight Communications posted $86.3 million in operating income on $254.9 million in revenue in Q4 ’09 results.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/uRwbJUlIOMA" height="1" width="1"/>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-03-09T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=16">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Insight Communications posted $86.3 million in operating income on $254.9 million in revenue in Q4 '09 results.</p> <p>RGU additions were light. The MSO lost 1,800 basic subscribers, compared to a gain of 5,500 a year ago.</p> <p>Digital additions were relatively solid, with 13,700 new customers versus a gain of 19,000 a year ago.</p> <p>Data additions followed a similar trend, down to 8,100 additions from 13,300 a year ago.</p> <p>Voice additions plummeted to 3,100 from 26,000 a year ago.</p> <p>ARPU reached $118.41 per month.</p> <p>For the full year, revenue rose 13% to $981 million and operating income rose 10% to $311 million.</p> <p>Total customer relationships rose by 16,100 in 2009.<br /> </p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4369http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4365http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/Lz15M28OvpY/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comPaced by strong gains in high-speed data, Charter Communications posted a 3.5% gain in revenue and a 2.4% increase in EBITDA in Q4 '09 results.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/Lz15M28OvpY" height="1" width="1"/>Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-03-02T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=7">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Paced by strong gains in high-speed data, Charter Communications posted a 3.5% gain in revenue and a 2.4% increase in EBITDA in Q4 '09 results.</p> <p>The company emerged from bankruptcy protection at the end of November, so it reported combinations of new and &quot;proceeding company&quot; financials, as well as actual and pro forma results, based on the dissolution of certain cable systems in the past year.</p> <p>Pro forma revenue rose 3.5% to $1.7 billion, while pro forma adjusted EBITDA rose 2.4% to $633 million.</p> <p>The MSO more than doubled HSD additions to 51,800 from 22,900 a year ago.</p> <p>Charter narrowed its basic video loss to 56,900, versus a loss of 71,800 a year ago, with most of the loss coming from video-only subscribers.</p> <p>Digital additions rose to 43,300 from 22,400 additions a year ago, with 96,000 advanced digital video additions. Digital penetration now stands at 67%.</p> <p>Voice additions fell to 60,600 from 75,200 a year ago.</p> <p>The gain of 99,000 RGUs more than doubled last year's count. Some 57% of subscribers are in bundles.</p> <p>ARPU rose from $108.64 to $117.43 per month, much of that from rates within the triple play bundle.</p> <p>Capex was $1.4 billion in 2009, some 17% of revenue.</p> <p>The company expects capex to fall to $1.1 billion in 2010.</p> <p>The company will rollout switched digital video, now in several markets, to over 60% by yearend 2010 and more DOCSIS 3.0 markets, now at one million homes and rising to over 50% by yearend in 2010, with its Ultra 60 product, said Mike Lovett, interim CEO.</p> <p>The MSO also is testing all digital DTA adapters, with the aim of going all digital on some markets.</p> <p>The company expects programming costs to rise in the high single digits in 2010, while marketing expense will remain in the 4% range for 2010.</p> <p>Part of that marketing will be data only and other data bundles, without video, to nonvideo homes, which is now 60% of Charter's homes passed.</p> <p>Lovett said Charter has seen a slowing of telco video rollouts from AT&amp;T in recent months, pushing out some homes passed goals by 12 months.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4365http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4363http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/5JltgRtJOVQ/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comDish Network has turned the corner and then some. The company added 249,000 new subscribers in Q4 '09, far outdistancing DirecTV's gain of 119,000 and providing a notable turnaround from the loss of 102,000 subscribers a year ago.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/5JltgRtJOVQ" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-03-01T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=13">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Dish Network has turned the corner and then some. The company added 249,000 new subscribers in Q4 '09, far outdistancing DirecTV's gain of 119,000 and providing a notable turnaround from the loss of 102,000 subscribers a year ago.</p> <p>In a tight economy, Dish returned to its bread and butter themes of value, which was evident in some the financials. Revenue rose but 1.4% to $2.96 million, and ARPU was down a nickel to $69.90 per month.</p> <p>But subscriber growth returned in a vengeance, with not only the net addition turnaround, but a gross add gain to 847,000 from 659,000 a year earlier.</p> <p>Churn was way down, from 1.87% to 1.44%, and SAC fell from $735 to $720.</p> <p>Overall profit fell from $210 million to $179 million in the quarter.</p> <p>EVP Tom Cullen said that while DISH is getting the majority of its subscribers from cable, the share it's taking from DirecTV has grown in the past few quarters.</p> <p>CEO Charlie Ergen said "churn has benefited from the transition from 18 months to 24 month commitments," but that ends in the first half of 2010. Once those subscriber contract periods normalize, Ergen said Dish's churn will be more in line in DirecTV's churn.</p> <p>At the same time, ARPU suffered from the six- and 12-month promotions Dish had in the market. ARPU will improve once the six-month promotions end.</p> <p>Cullen added that the premiums market is stablizing a bit, adding that "frankly we can do a better job of marketing PPV and we have plans in place to do that."</p> <p>Ergen added he was "befuddled" that DirecTV began such heavy discounting of 50% several years ago.</p> <p>"We never expected anyone with a leading brand to discount it 50%," he said.</p> <p>Once that happened, the DBS business became more of commodity business, he said. "We have always been much better as a commodity business. I like the way we are positioned."</p> <p>Ergen spoke to Dish's equipment rate hikes. "We had underpriced some of our hardware vis a vis the market," including HD boxes, "and we made some adjustments. Most people didn't see a price increase or very little price increases." He allowed that that some subscribers with six or seven boxes saw larger increases, "but we just had to get it right for the future." He added the equipment changes won't be enough to offset program rate hikes, but that Dish has some room for rate adjustments later in the year.</p> <p>On telco video competition, Ergen said he was surprised net additions are plateauing. "They have always been good competitors. We see that when they sell DirecTV."</p> <p>Ergen said Dish always knew the big telcos would have their own video business, and would try to flip subscribers to their own video service. The good news for Dish, Ergen said, is that "we have smaller telcos partners they aren't for the most part trying to steal those customers long term."</p> <p>Dish is launching several new operational initiatives, including looking at ways to be more responsive to subscribers when they call, making tech visits more efficient and reducing the number of points of contact with customers.</p> <p>Dish continues work on its TV Everywhere concept, which takes many forms, Cullen said. "This is an evolving portion of the industry," he said. "We are active in authentification, we will deploy Sling-enabled boxes," and Dish is working on remote access capability on cell phones.</p> <p>Dish is moving cautiously on its AWS spectrum, with Ergen throwing a bit of cold water on video saying he's not sure the Qualcomm MediaFlo model is working. There eBooks out there they require lots of data, he said, which AWS could be used for. "We don't want to spend a lot of money in capex and find the model doesn't pay for itself."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4363http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4361http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/kNcSFSz5OFE/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comMediacom posted a 5% increase in pro forma Q4'09 revenue, as gains in data and phone help offset lower video results.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/kNcSFSz5OFE" height="1" width="1"/>Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-26T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=17">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Mediacom posted a 5% increase in pro forma Q4'09 revenue, as gains in data and phone help offset lower video results.</p> <p>Revenue rose 5% to $372 million, adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization rose 8.4% to $138.5 million and operating income rose 5.6% to $77.2 million.</p> <p>The MSO added 13,000 data and 13,000 phone subscribers, versus gains of 11,000 and 9,000 a year ago.</p> <p>Basic losses widened to 25,000 from 6,000 a year ago and digital additions fell from 20,000 to 13,000.</p> <p>Despite the basic losses, video revenue grew 2.2% in the quarter, due to advanced services sales and rate increases. The MSO said most of the subs it lost were video-only to aggressive DBS promotions. HD/DVR penetration stands at 38.8%.</p> <p>ARPU reached $99.17 in the quarter.</p> <p>CEO Rocco Commisso said the MSO is still seeing unemployment, housing and general uneasiness among consumers effecting results. If competitors continue aggressive price discounts, he said, that will also affect the video business.</p> <p>But executives said DBS spending has slowed in the first part of 2010 and offered discounts are not as deep.</p> <p>Capex spend in 2010 will be on par with 2009, but lower as a percent of revenue, the company said.</p> <p>Mediacom's all digital conversion has hit 70% and the company expects to reach 75 HD channels later this year. The company also will launch multiroom DVR (on up to 3 TVs) in the first half of 2010.</p> <p>Mediacom will continue its rollout of DOCSIS 3.0 and will reach 1.4 million homes in 2010.<br /> </p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4361http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4359http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/JnhZ-qIc3FA/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comWhile T-Mobile USA fared better in the fourth quarter than its disastrous third quarter, the struggling mobile carrier still posted mixed results to end 2009, including losses in postpaid subscribers and falling ARPU offset by a boom in prepaid as we<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/JnhZ-qIc3FA" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-25T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=24">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>While T-Mobile USA fared better in the fourth quarter than its disastrous third quarter, the struggling mobile carrier still posted mixed results to end 2009, including losses in postpaid subscribers and falling ARPU offset by a boom in prepaid as well as stabilizing revenue.</p> <p>T-Mobile did manage to put its customer growth back into positive territory during the quarter, but only thanks to its prepaid segment. It lost 117,000 higher-revenue postpaid customers, compared to a 140,000 lost in the third quarter and 267,000 customers added in the fourth quarter 2008.</p> <p>Fortunately for the carrier, that was more than offset by a gain of 488,000 prepaid customers, a significant jump compared to the 63,000 added in the third quarter and well ahead of the 355,000 added in the prior fourth quarter.</p> <p>Overall, that lifted T-Mobile to a net 371,000 subscriber gain, improved from the net 77,000 subscriber loss in the third quarter but well behind the 621,000 net additions in the prior fourth quarter.</p> <p>That helped to improve the churn rate, which came in at 3.3% compared to 3.4% in the third quarter and 3.3% in the fourth quarter 2009. Given the postpaid losses churn for that segment jumped to 2.5% from 2.4% in the third quarter and 2.4% in the fourth quarter a year ago. That is also almost double the rate of leading competitors AT&amp;T Mobility and Verizon Wireless' rates, which were 1.19% and 1.06%, respectively.</p> <p>At the end of the year, T-Mobile claimed just shy of 33.8 million customers, including 26.8 million postpaid and 7 million prepaid customers.</p> <p>During 2009 T-Mobile did make moves to regain market share, including rollout of its Even More and Even More Plus rate plans. During the fourth quarter earnings call for parent Deutsche Telekom, CEO Rene Obermann said that despite Verizon's recent price drop for its unlimited voice plans, the Even More and Even More Plus plans "remain very competitive."</p> <p>To raise its visibility, T-Mobile added 3,966 kiosks in shopping malls and big-box retail outlets as well as 299 T-Mobile stand-alone stores in 2009. That ramped its retail presence to 9,573, almost double the 5,318 locations at the end of 2008.</p> <p>"We want to strengthen our market position in the United States, especially by improving the network, by increasing our handset portfolio to offer more UMTS equipment and by making more attractive offers compared to Verizon and AT&amp;T and by strengthening distribution."</p> <p>Despite those efforts, more bad news could be found in average revenue per user, which again slipped, falling to $46 from $47 in the third quarter and $50 in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p>Voice ARPU was once again the dragging factor, dropping to $35.80 from $37 in the third quarter and $40.70 in the fourth quarter 2008.</p> <p>That decline was slowed once again by the growth in data ARPU, which rose to $10.20 from $10 in the third quarter and $9.30 in the fourth quarter 2008.</p> <p>The data growth was led by a proliferation of 3G-capable handsets, which totaled 3.9 million in the fourth quarter, up sharply from 2.8 million in the third quarter and far ahead of the mere 800,000 activated in the fourth quarter a year ago.</p> <p>While it did lose valuable postpaid customers, T-Mobile did manage reign in its backsliding revenue somewhat, which instead rose to $5.41 billion from $5.38 million in the third quarter, even if that was still behind the $5.72 million revenue intake in the fourth quarter last year. The bright spot was data revenue, which rose to $1.03 billion from $1 billion in the third quarter and $905 million in the prior fourth quarter.</p> <p>Net income also fell to $306 million, from $417 million in the third quarter and $483 million in the fourth quarter 2008.</p> <p>While T-Mobile's capex remains elevated because of its ongoing 3G buildout, it did moderate somewhat in the quarter. At $697 million, it was down from $787 million in the third quarter and $895 million in the fourth quarter a year ago.</p> <p>Now that T-Mobile's 3G network has been extended to exceed the goal of 200 million POPs, capital expenditures will drop in 2010. While reduced, the capex budget does include $300 million for rollout of T-Mobile's HSPA+ technology capable of delivering peak theoretical downlink rates of 21 Mbps. The carrier has been testing the technology in Philadelphia with good results, so the marching orders now are to move to a full commercial launch in the top 30 markets this year.</p> <p>"This would be important, because quality in the U.S. would give us a competitive edge and a leading profile," Obermann said. "Thus, we would be able to co ver around 180 million people by the end of 2010."</p> <p>Recently, rumors have flown that Deutsche Telekom was looking to forge some sort of partnership &ndash; or perhaps a merger &ndash; with another U.S. telecom player to improve T-Mobile's competitive stance. But during the earnings call, Obermann also declined to answer a question regarding whether T-Mobile would continue to operate as a stand-alone entity.</p> <p>If anything, Obermann seemed a bit defensive regarding Deutsche Telekom's investment in T-Mobile USA long term.</p> <p>"The U.S. business isn't bad. It just didn't grow last year," he said.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4359http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4357http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/_QRkmigoCKM/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comDespite yet another quarter of net subscriber loss, Vonage Inc. actually posted relatively strong results in the fourth quarter, including an uptick in revenue, a net profit and improving churn.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/_QRkmigoCKM" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-25T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=30">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Despite yet another quarter of net subscriber loss, Vonage Inc. actually posted relatively strong results in the fourth quarter, including an uptick in revenue, a net profit and improving churn.</p> <p>Vonage lost another 10,131 voice subscribers, a significant improvement from 50,191 lost in the third quarter and 14,700 lost in the fourth quarter 2008. The customer count at year's end was a little more than 2.43 million lines.</p> <p>Other trends were more promising. Churn improved dramatically to 2.8% from 3.4% in the third quarter and 2.9% in the prior fourth quarter. Average revenue per user was more uneven, falling to $29.84 compared to $29.89 in the third quarter and $28.33 in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p>Improvements in churn during in the quarter were credited to improvements in Vonage's backoffice, including the on-boarding process for new customers &ndash; which has been a trouble spot, as a relatively high number of customers who signed up never activated service because they grew frustrated with technical and billing snarls. Vonage also has improved key interconnection with other voice providers, and as a result during the past six months the number of impaired calls has dropped 20%.</p> <p>"All of those factors are having a significant improvement on churn, and we do expect that to continue in the future," said Vonage CEO Marc Lefar, during the fourth quarter earnings call.</p> <p>In revenue, Vonage took in $223.5 million, up slightly from $222 million in the third quarter and $222.2 million in the fourth quarter 2008. More importantly, it turned is net loss into profit territory, posting a $4.4 million net income, compared to a $54.5 million loss in the third quarter and $40.9 million loss in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p><strong>International focus</strong></p> <p>The big focus for 2010 &ndash; and the reason for the turnaround seen in the fourth quarter &ndash; is on Vonage World and additional international calling plans. Debuted in August, Vonage world offers unlimited local and long distance calling in the U.S. and Puerto Rico as well as free unlimited landline calls to cities in more than 60 countries, including Canada, Mexico and India.</p> <p>So far, the service has attracted 645,000 customers, although new customer growth in the fourth quarter did slow, Lefar acknowledged. Still, Vonage plans to develop more international call services and is working on targeted marketing to ethnic segments.</p> <p>Vonage also is looking to develop its wireless call services and applications, hoping to bank on the trend toward converged wireless and wireline service. It launched Vonage Mobile in October, and following that launched Vonage World Mobile in late December.</p> <p>The latter has seen some 120,000 mobile downloads since its debut, "and this is just the start," Lefar said.</p> <p>Going forward, Vonage plans to make changes to its platform and network to support more mobile applications. It also is developing applications for inbound and outbound calling, as well as a new application that allows international travelers to avoid roaming charges.</p> <p>"It creates the opportunity for Vonage to deliver integrated communications service across a vast array of devices," Lefar said.</p> <p>Coinciding with its earnings release, Vonage also announced that it has appointed Barry Rowan as CFO. Rowan will take over from long time bean counter John Rigo, who is leaving the company to pursue other interests.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4357http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4356http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/hBosnokj0aU/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comCenturyLink Inc.’s fourth quarter was a mix of victories and setbacks, as slowing line loss and a revived DSL growth rate were offset by declines in video customers as well as overall revenue.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/hBosnokj0aU" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-25T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=15">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>CenturyLink Inc.'s fourth quarter was a mix of victories and setbacks, as slowing line loss and a revived DSL growth rate were offset by declines in video customers as well as overall revenue.</p> <p>Despite the lukewarm results, the telco has big plans for video in 2010, focusing on an expansion of its IPTV service from three markets to eight by year's end.</p> <p>The fourth-quarter numbers were indeed mixed. CenturyLink does not break out residential and business customer metrics for its data, voice or video metrics, but during the quarter it lost another 146,000 combined residential and business lines, down from 170,000 lines lost in the third quarter and 200,000 pro forma lost by the former Embarq and CenturyTel combined in the fourth quarter last year. That left the telco with a little more than 7 million lines at the end of the year.</p> <p>In DSL, CenturyLink gained 47,000 subscribers, up from 43,000 added in the third quarter and 37,000 pro forma added in the fourth quarter a year ago. That raised its total customer base to 2.24 million.</p> <p>During the fourth quarter earnings cal, CEO Glen Post noted that the ratio of voice lines porting in to porting out did improve in the quarter, adding that there also were signs of improving conditions in its larger markets.</p> <p><strong>Major market turnaround</strong></p> <p>As for voice line losses, "we've seen a significant rate of decline in our larger markets, and we've seen a turnaround in the vast majority of our markets in HSI," Post said. That is largely attributed to CenturyLink's local market focus and targeted advertising, "and we are pleased right now."</p> <p>Following the merger with Embarq, CenturyLink initiated a reorganization that placed general managers in charge of five operating regions. The idea was to give them more control to direct local marketing efforts, and the slowing line loss and improved DSL growth are evidence it is working, Post said.</p> <p>The telco also has switched its marketing to focus on more direct mail and is now targeting more non-customers, said Chief Operating Officer Karen Puckett.</p> <p>But on the downside, CenturyLink's video additions also saw declines. In the quarter, it added 32,500 new Dish Network satellite subscribers, down from 39,500 added in the third quarter. CenturyLink did not provide combined Dish subscriber gains pro forma in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p>Video subscriber penetration now stands at 11.7% of primary residential lines.</p> <p><strong>IPTV expansion</strong></p> <p>But the satellite-delivered Dish service apparently is not the video focus in 2010 &ndash; instead, CenturyLink has plans to expand its fledgling IPTV service to five new markets, in addition to the rollouts under way in Lacrosse, Wis., and in Jefferson City and Columbia, Mo. Post did not specify which five markets were targeted, but he did note that "obviously these will be in our more urban areas."</p> <p>Given CenturyLink's two biggest markets are Las Vegas and Orlando, they would be leading candidates for IPTV market launches.</p> <p>Because the IPTV rollout piggybacks the ongoing broadband network upgrade &ndash; with Embarq now offering up to 10 Mbps of service in some areas &ndash; the incremental cost to roll out these markets will be just $30 million for 2010. The connection to data is not just the network, as Post noted that the IPTV service is proving a strong bundling lure.</p> <p>"We are finding it has a very strong pull through effect with high-speed Internet &ndash; about 85% of our IPTV customers are taking high-speed Internet," he said.</p> <p>If the results of the next wave of rollouts are positive, CenturyLink could become more aggressive about its IPTV service in 2011. But Post warned that given the subscriber densities needed to make IPTV economics work, expanding it to mid-sized markets is still "questionable."</p> <p>In revenue, CenturyLink followed industry trends by posting declines overall. Total revenue dropped to $1.84 billion from $1.87 billion in the third quarter and $1.98 billion pro forma in the prior fourth quarter. Net income rose to $286.7 million from $269 million in the third quarter, and $393 million pro forma in the fourth quarter 2008.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4356http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4353http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/-NFeIME_5ww/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comStrong growth in data and voice customers lifted Cablevision Systems Corp.'s Q4 '09 results, as cable revenue grew 5.2% to $1.32 billion while AOCF rose 11.1% to $553.6 million.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/-NFeIME_5ww" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-25T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=6">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Strong growth in data and voice customers lifted Cablevision Systems Corp.'s Q4 '09 results, as cable revenue grew 5.2% to $1.32 billion while AOCF rose 11.1% to $553.6 million.</p> <p>The MSO lost 2,800 basic subscribers, better than last year's loss of 4,000. Digital subscribers rose by 4,800 versus 23,000 a year ago, but at a 94.4% penetration rate, there's not much more room for growth.</p> <p>The company added 89,000 HD subscribers in the quarter and now sports a 60% HD penetration rate.</p> <p>Cablevision added 45,700 data customers, versus 28,000 a year ago, and now sports a penetration rate of 53.2%. "There continues to be momentum for HSD growth," said COO Tom Rutledge.</p> <p>Voice units grew by 51,400 versus 53,000 a year ago.</p> <p>Rutledge said the company's data and voice margins surpassed video margins in 2009.</p> <p>Total RGUs grew 99,100 in the quarter, versus 100,000 from a year ago.</p> <p>ARPU rose 6.8% from a year ago to $144.03 per month.</p> <p>Rutledge said Cablevision will roll out its RS DVR service in three phases in 2010. By year's end, the MSOs won't be buying any standalone DVRs for customers. The change will be capex neutral in the early years, Rutledge said, as CPE goes down but scalable infrastructure goes up to pay for central storage and software. But eventually overall capex will fall, he said, because centralized storage is cheaper that individual DVRs. The company has the capacity to implement RS DVR (and thus send individual streams to the home) because of the conversion to all digital.</p> <p>The MSO continues to make progress in addressable advertising. "We have a lot of advertisers getting on the platform," Rutledge said. "There is actually significant growth in that category."</p> <p>FiOS now passes 38% of Cablevision homes, Rutledge said, adding that "we did quite well in areas where we compete with wireline competitors." Lower income areas with high unemployment are impacting video results. "If we were in a more robust economic climate we would have had growth in video subs," he said.</p> <p>The PC to TV trial will be rolled out to all digital subscribers, Rutledge said, and will work on all deployed digital set-tops. "We think it's a breakthrough service for us. The TV becomes a monitor for the PC." Whatever is displayed on the PC can be seen on the TV, Rutledge said.</p> <p>Philosophically, "I don't think it's smart to fight the Internet in the TV space. If you are a programmer getting license fees, you really have to think about what you do with your content. Can you put programming on the Internet and at the same time collect license fees from the cable or satellite business?" While there are applications and opportunities for programmers on the Internet, there are also perils, he said. "One of the perils is if you put product out there, it's going to end up on TV screens," Rutledge said.</p> <p>"As a distributor, we think we can manage our way through that issue and create products" that enhance the service, he said. "As a programmer, you have to really be conscious what space you want to reach and how your business model works."</p> <p>But is Cablevision to far ahead of its cable brethren?</p> <p>"Actually we get along other cable companies intellectually and strategically quite well," he said. The network we have all built are really quite capable and robust. Different companies are at different points on the trajectory that will take them to similar places&hellip;.We are at that stage we can do things that some companies will do several years down the road."</p> <p>Cablevision is also trialing a voice service that switches calls from a cellular network to its WiFi network. "The test is proving to be good and consistent with our view of what is possible," Rutledge said.</p> <p>While Cablevision is building its own WiFi network, Rutledge declined to say whether it would build or lease a cellular network if it chose to launch a wireless voice service integrating WiFi and cellular.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4353http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4348http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/afIv2PtiyO0/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comClearwire added 87,000 new subscribers in Q4 '09, a substantial jump from 5,000 a year ago, but saw its operating loss widened to $418 million from $245 million year over year.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/afIv2PtiyO0" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-24T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=51">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Clearwire added 87,000 new subscribers in Q4 '09, a substantial jump from 5,000 a year ago, but saw its operating loss widened to $418 million from $245 million year over year.</p> <p>The company now counts 688,000 total subscribers, including 438,000 4G subscribers and 46,000 wholesale subscribers from Sprint, Comcast and Time Warner Cable.</p> <p>ARPU edged up slightly, from $39.70 to $39.86, but churn rose to 3.6% from 2.8%. The churn figure does not include wholesale results, and reflects higher churn in pre-WiMax markets. Taking out those markets, churn was 3%, Clearwire said. About one third of the churn is nonpays due to economic factors. The company said the vast majority of its customers are on two-year agreements.</p> <p>Overall revenue rose 34% to $79.9 million from $59.7 million a year ago.</p> <p>The company has rolled out 4G service in 27 markets covering 34 million people today, a bit higher than expected, and expects to reach 120 million people by year's end.</p> <p>Clearwire said it expects its subscriber count to triple in 2010, including wholesale subscribers.</p> <p>Both Comcast and TWC have launched in seven cities, while Sprint has launched in all Clearwire markets.</p> <p>CEO Bill Morrow said Houston will launch live in the coming weeks, with San Francisco, New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Denver and Kansas City, slated for later this year.</p> <p>Morrow also said Clearwire is looking to sign deals with other third party providers, including ISPs, fixed and wireless carriers and consumer electronics companies.</p> <p>The company has built 5,000 towers today and plans slightly under 20,000 by 2011.</p> <p>Clearwire said about 50% of subscribers are buying Clear service as a replacement to current broadband service. The typical subscriber is under 35, more mobile and an apartment dweller, although the company is seeing an uptick among suburban families and small businesses.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4348http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4344http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/hm907vAAAqw/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comDirecTV U.S. posted substantial increases in revenue and profit, but much lower net additions in Q4 '09 results released Feb. 18.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/hm907vAAAqw" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-18T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=12">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>DirecTV U.S. posted substantial increases in revenue and profit, but much lower net additions in Q4 '09 results released Feb. 18.</p> <p>Net additions fell from 301,000 a year ago to 119,000 in Q4 '09, as gross additions fell from 1,044,000 to 964,000, mostly due to stricter credit policies.</p> <p>Some 70% of new subs signed up for HD/DVR, said CFO Pat Doyle, adding that the company's advanced services penetration rate is 60% of its total base (18,560,000).</p> <p>Churn edged higher to 1.52%, versus 1.42% a year ago. SAC rose to $752 from $724 a year ago.</p> <p>ARPU rose 2.1% to $92.36 per month, flat with Q3. But Doyle saw several favorable trends in ARPU, including the slowest rate of decline in premium channel subscriptions, faster PPV movie revenue growth and a 13% growth in ad revenue. "NFL Sunday Ticket exceeded our expectations," he added.</p> <p>Revenue rose 8% to $5.1 billion from $4.7 billion and operating profit jumped 54% to $750 million from $488 million.</p> <p>In his first earnings call, new CEO Michael White pointed out that DirecTV's net additions in 2009 were the most in four years "despite an increasingly competitive industry."</p> <p>"The economy recovery is still quite fragile," he said, with consumers focusing on getting good value for their money.</p> <p>White is conducting a top to bottom review of DirecTV, "reviewing all of our strategies," and "you will see some shift in emphasis."</p> <p>One feature will be whole home DVR set to debut later this year, he said, which will also connect to other media devices.</p> <p>DirecTV also will "create ways to take that programming on the go and watch their favorite team live on mobile phones."</p> <p>The service will launch 3D channels this summer and seek to connect more subscribers to broadband, he said.</p> <p>DirecTV will launch DirecTV Cinema, a movie service that will offer 400 PPV titles, up from the 15 or so title available today. Half of those titles will be day and date release with home video, he said.</p> <p>White also indicated DirecTV will tweak its customer service setup, which could increase costs, all in the name of improving customer service scores.</p> <p>While DirecTV isn't looking at acquiring more programming assets, White allowed DirecTV is looking at owning more regional sports networks, to add to the three it owns today.</p> <p>DirecTV expects revenue to rise in the mid- to high-single digits range in 2010, Doyle said, similar to 2009 levels. There will be "less contribution from subscriber growth," Doyle said, which was 942,000 in 2009. (Subscriber addition trends in early 2009 benefited from the digital transition and the inclusion of AT&amp;T as a telco partner.) Gross additions will also be down in 2010. But Doyle expects faster ARPU growth, likely in the mid-digit range. Programming cost increase will likely fall in the mid single digit range.</p> <p>White declined to respond directly to a question on combing with a telco. "We have an excellent relationship with a number of telcos. Bundles are a valuable strategy and tactic to have in the quiver," White said. "We continue to believe broadband and satellite can work together, particularly in more rural areas of the country."</p> <p>Asked to comment on the removal of the low-cost family programming package plan, White said DirecTV will "take a fresh look at all our strategies and packages this spring." That will include how and whether DirecTV will compete on the low end, he said.</p> <p>But he added: "We need to be who we are. We are not cheaper, we are better. We need to keep a good value for our consumers. This company has been about differentiation and being better. We'll think differently about segmentation as this industry matures."</p> <p>White said that DirecTV will continue R&amp;D work on streaming content to mobile devices, as it has done with the NFL, hinting that "maybe even as a separate service from the DirecTV service. Mobile is going to be an integral part of our strategy going forward."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4344http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4341http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/hl2mVR7zegg/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comQwest Communications International Inc.’s fourth quarter saw strong gains in fiber-to-the-node, video and wireless base, but the telco continued to see line losses and a drop in overall DSL customer growth as it closed the final quarter of 2009.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/hl2mVR7zegg" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-17T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=19">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Qwest Communications International Inc.'s fourth quarter saw strong gains in fiber-to-the-node, video and wireless base, but the telco continued to see line losses and a drop in overall DSL customer growth as it closed the final quarter of 2009.</p> <p>Fiber also is the big theme and capex driver for 2010, as Qwest plans to expand its FTTN network to cover an additional 1 million homes, even as it extends fiber connections to cell towers and commercial buildings.</p> <p>The Bell operator may be basing its future in fiber, but for the fourth quarter its aging copper network was the weak link. In the fourth quarter, Qwest lost another 157,000 primary residential voice lines, but that was down from 194,000 lost in the third quarter and 173,000 lost in the fourth quarter 2008. It also lost another 22,000 secondary lines, also down from 25,000 lost in the third quarter and 30,000 lost in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p>During the fourth quarter earnings call, Chief Operating Officer Theresa Taylor credited the deceleration in voice line losses to solid progress on retention during the quarter. She also noted that absolute numbers of consumer access line loss was at its lowest in two years.</p> <p>At quarter's end, the telco held 5.2 million primary residential and 437,000 additional lines. That's down 834,000 for the full year 2009.</p> <p>In data, growth overall continued to level, despite another strong quarter for FTTN-based services. Qwest added 23,000 digital subscriber line customers, down from 28,000 added in the third quarter and well off the 54,000 subscribers added in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p>As with the past several quarters, Qwest's fiber-to-the-node network upgrade continued to fuel its DSL growth, netting another 80,000 new customers as well as existing subscribers who upgraded to the 12 Mbps and higher service. That's up from 71,000 new FTTN customers in the third quarter.</p> <p>At the end of the year Qwest's DSL customer count stood at 2.97 million, up 127,000 compared to the full year 2008.</p> <p>At 420,000 FTTN subscribers, FTTN constitutes 14% of Qwest's total DSL customer base. Those customers &ndash; many of which were existing customers who upgraded to FTTN service &ndash; also generate about 15% more in average revenue per user compared to their DSL peers, Taylor said.</p> <p>"We believe migrations alone provide a great opportunity," she said.</p> <p>Taylor said the FTTN network now passes 3.5 million homes in Qwest's 14-state territory, and plans are in 2010 to extend to another 1 million "at a minimum, I would say." At the same time, Qwest also is stepping up fiber line extensions to commercial businesses and cell sites. Of the latter, there are about 18,000 cell site in the telco's operating territory, and the company already has contracts to extend fiber to about 2,000. Qwest estimates that about 50% of the cell towers in its territory will require fiber connections by 2014, making it a prime service opportunity, Taylor said.</p> <p>Given the growth potential across its segments, new fiber is fact the focus for capital expenditures in 2010. Capex is projected to rise from $1.4 billion for 2009 to $1.7 billion in 2010, with the rise attributed to fiber investments.</p> <p>"This is where we are spending our capital," Taylor said. "The majority of the growth is in new fiber, and so we are doing that and fiber-to-the-node, and fiber into buildings on the (Business Markets Group) side."</p> <p>The Bell operator's intake of satellite TV customers under its partnership with DirecTV also rose sequentially, netting another 18,000 compared to 9,000 added in the third quarter but well off the 37,000 added in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p>The telco actually added 23,000 DirecTV subscribers for the quarter, but that was offset by elimination of 5,000 Qwest Choice wireline TV customers as the telco finally shut off that service in Colorado and Arizona.</p> <p>Qwest actually added 23,000 DirecTV customers in the quarter, but that was offset by elimination of 5,000 remaining Qwest wireline TV customers in Arizona and Colorado. Taylor said the former Qwest Choice service has now been completely shut down in those two states.</p> <p>At year's end, Qwest's now entirely satellite TV subscriber base stood at 880,000, about 82,000 more than it claimed in 2008.</p> <p>Even though it has now shut down its wireline TV service, CEO Ed Mueller indicated that Qwest is interested in the advancements in IPTV technology. But as in past quarters, he indicated that Qwest's version of IPTV might not follow the traditional multichannel linear programming format.</p> <p>"On IPTV, as you know that's the reason we built this architecture was to take advantage of the movement of what I call a la carte video," Mueller said. "We are still bullish on that. We are working with others that I would call enablement."</p> <p>At the same time, Qwest also did shut down its traditional wireline TV service, and it would look to partners to provide the programming for any future service. To that end, Qwest is now talking with outfits in the Silicon Valley that have a different view of how to make money from content, mixing subscription and advertising elements.</p> <p>Elsewhere, Qwest saw stronger growth in new or existing customers who chose to also bundle Verizon Wireless service with their wireline package. It netted 64,000 wireless bundled customers under the reseller agreement, up from 23,000 added in the third quarter and a significant improvement from the 49,000 lost in the fourth quarter last year while it was shutting down its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) wireless service with Sprint Nextel Corp. and transitioning customers over to the Verizon Wireless service.</p> <p>Despite the executives spin emphasizing the improving DSL, TV and wireless businesses, Qwest did not fare so well on the bottom line for the quarter or the year. The telco netted $2.99 billion in the quarter, down from $3.05 billion in the third quarter and $3.32 billion in the fourth quarter 2008. For the full year, revenue dropped to $12.31 billion from $13.48 billion in 2008.</p> <p>Net income came in at $108 million, down from $136 million in the third quarter and $185 million in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p>The shrinking income also led to downsizing of Qwest's employee base. During the quarter Qwest also passed out 1,200 pink slips, most of which were in the latter half of the period. For the year, the telco cut 1,800 jobs.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4341http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4333http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/g6kbTpiSfGY/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comFor most wireless carriers, losing 148,000 customer loss and a 2.11% postpaid churn running at twice the rate of peers would be the hallmarks of a bad quarter – but for Sprint Nextel Corp. the those metrics were actually an improvement compared to re<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/g6kbTpiSfGY" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-10T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?ID=23">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>For most wireless carriers, losing 148,000 customer loss and a 2.11% postpaid churn running at twice the rate of peers would be the hallmarks of a bad quarter &ndash; but for Sprint Nextel Corp. the those metrics were actually an improvement compared to recent quarters.</p> <p>While there is still no realistic talk of a return to positive subscriber or revenue growth, Sprint officials during the fourth quarter earnings call were cautiously optimistic that the company is slowly making a turnaround from a disastrous 2008 and early 2009.</p> <p>"If there is one word that would sum up the fourth quarter and 2009, it would be progress," said CEO Dan Hesse, during the fourth quarter earnings call.</p> <p>Sprint did continue its losing ways when it came to subscribers, but at 148,000 net customers exiting &ndash; down from 545,000 lost in the third quarter and 1.27 million lost in the prior fourth quarter &ndash; it was the lowest loss since the fourth quarter 2007. In the valued postpaid segment, Sprint lost 504,000 customers, down from 810,000 lost in the third quarter and 1.1 million lost in the fourth quarter 2008.</p> <p>Of that, Sprint's iDEN narrowband network was the culprit in the loss. It shed another 507,000 iDEN customers, which overwhelmed the 3,000 postpaid customers Sprint added to its flagship CDMA network service.</p> <h6>Turned the corner?</h6> <p>Hesse stopped short of projecting a return to customer gains in the network-based postpaid customer segment based on its CDMA network, but he did note that Sprint does have internal goals related to improved customer metrics and revenue.</p> <p>"It's my hope and our plan that we've turned the corner," he said. "So we do see momentum going into 2010 with respect to our CDMA business. But it is a competitive environment."</p> <p>The carrier also lost 79,000 wholesale and affiliate customers, down from the 410,000 lost in the third quarter but a reverse from the 146,000 gained in the prior fourth quarter.</p> <p>Sprint's postpaid and wholesale customer drain was once again stemmed by growth among prepaid customers, adding 435,000 new customers to its Boost Mobile brand. That's down compared to 666,000 added in the third quarter but ahead of 314,000 lost in the fourth quarter a year ago.</p> <p>While growth in Sprint's prepaid business including the Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Assurance brands was good in the quarter, the longer-term trend points to slowing growth in the coming quarters as the prepaid segment sees increasing competition, Hesse said.</p> <p>Future growth might not come through just organic customer gains, however. In light of Sprint's recent acquisition of Virgin Mobile, there has been speculation that it could continue as an active player in prepaid consolidation. In early February reports surfaced that prepaid wireless provider Leap Wireless is now exploring whether to put its Cricket-branded service on the for-sale block.</p> <p>While Hesse wouldn't comment on any specific transactions in negotiation, "generally I think some consolidation is good for the business," he said, adding that the benefit is in gaining scale. "If the price were right, if the synergies would be significant, I think (merger and acquisition) absolutely is a way in the industry to get to growth."</p> <p>Despite the influx of prepaid customers, at the end of 2009, Sprint's total customer count had slipped to 48.13 million, down from 49.26 million in the fourth quarter 2008.</p> <p>Postpaid churn also moderated somewhat, although it is still running at a much higher rate than industry leaders AT&amp;T Mobility and Verizon Wireless. At 2.11%, it was down from 2.17% in the third quarter and from 2.16% in the prior fourth quarter.</p> <p>While an improvement, Sprint's postpaid churn rate is still running at about twice the level as competitors AT&amp;T Mobility and Verizon Wireless. Sprint is seeing good performance on that front from its Simply Everything unlimited voice and data plans, which are attracting a stable customer base.</p> <p>Still, "the environment on postpaid is getting much more competitive," Hesse said, noting that T-Mobile, AT&amp;T and Verizon in the past year have adjusted their pricing since the rollout of the Simply Everything plan. "But we think we're priced where we need to be and still provide very, very good value to customers."</p> <p>Better news could again be found in wireless data ARPU, where Sprint once again took the industry lead. Data ARPU totaled$16.75, up from $16.25 in the third quarter and $14.50 in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p>Hesse noted the focus in 2010 will be in adding to Sprint's stable of 3G multimedia phones, as more and more customers opt for more sophisticated devices.</p> <p>"A robust portfolio of devices is important, as 49% of our fourth quarter CDMA postpaid handset sales and upgrades were either smartphones or handsets with touch screens," Hesse said.</p> <p>Data demand and revenue growth, however, couldn't entirely stem falling voice usage, and as a result overall ARPU fell to $55, down from $56 in the third quarter and $56 in the prior fourth quarter.</p> <p>And fewer customers meant less revenue, as total revenue of $7.87 billion was a decline from the $8.04 billion intake in the third quarter and $8.43 billion in the fourth quarter 2008. Net loss rose sequentially to $980 million, up from $478 million lost in the third quarter but an improvement from the $1.62 billion lost in the fourth quarter last year &ndash; the latter the result of a massive writedown of Sprint's iDEN network.</p> <h6>Big WiMAX plans</h6> <p>Meanwhile, Sprint is continuing its marketing and technology investments in the 4G WiMAX network Clearwire Inc. is now building in partnership with Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable, Brighthouse Networks and vendors Intel Corp. and Google Inc.</p> <p>In the fourth quarter, Sprint made a $1.1 billion investment in Clearwire, bringing its total ownership of the WiMAX provider to 56%.</p> <p>"Internally, we call 2010 the year of 4G. We are the only game in town, and it's a combination of we need to get more markets turned up and we need to get a better device lineup &ndash; and then we think we can really start to show some sizable progress in that regard," Hesse said.</p> <p>As for coverage, the goal is to expand the WiMAX network reach fourfold, "and you will start to see that with critical mass in 2010," he said.</p> <p>Sprint also unveiled the first dual mode 3G/4G laptop air card, and going forward it is working with laptop and mobile phone manufacturers to embed WiMAX radios in a range of devices.</p> <p>"What will really make a difference is having phones as well, that you can make phone calls on, also being launched during the year," Hesse said. "That will make a big difference."</p> <p>Pricing is yet another factor, and the goal there is to avoid creating disincentives for customers when it comes to dual-mode 3G/4G devices. On the flip side, Hesse also indicated that 4G service would not undercut existing 3G broadband data plan pricing.</p> <p>"As you know, with owning more than 50% of Clearwire, we look at the pricing of 4G/3G with really two hats on. One is, if you will, the (data) transfer price that we're charged as an MVNO on 4G as well as just the overall economics of that network," he explained. "And if you take a look at the second half of that, which is the economics of that network, it's a lot cheaper to produce a Gigabyte on the 4G network than on the 3G network.</p> <p>"So one of the questions would be, why don't you provide 4G at a lower price than 3G, because you could. But we have no intention of doing that, because there is a speed advantage," he said. "What we are doing is offering a larger bucket, because as customers get 4G devices, they're going to want to use their devices a lot more in the mobile environment. So raising the cap in terms of Gigabytes we believe reflects the superior economics of 4G over 3G in terms of data production."</p> <p>Clearwire's WiMAX service also will benefit from the differing approaches of its wholesale partners, Hesse said. So while Sprint's marketing focus will be on pairing WiMAX with its 3G cellular service aimed at customers on the go, the cable partners are focusing on the 4G service as an extension to their wireline data and even video services. Clearwire itself is focusing on the service as a fixed wireless alternative to wireline services.</p> <p>"The great thing about the partners is that each of us has the potential to be very strong with a different value proposition," he said. "I see the different partners that are investors in Clearwire expanding the addressable market for 4G because each of us brings different customer bases to the table."</p> <p>Going forward, Sprint also may be able to gain some operating cost savings in pooling its backhaul network with Clearwire's in certain local areas. It also is part of an ongoing Federal Communications Commission inquiry into special access rates &ndash; the fees incumbent telcos charge to wireless carriers for T-1 and Ethernet connections to cell towers. At present, the latter can constitute 33% of the total cost to build and maintain a cell tower site.</p> <p>Sprint along with other wireless carriers has been pressing federal regulators to institute limits to how much telcos &ndash; which are also themselves wireless competitors &ndash; can charge.</p> <p>It's a key regulatory focus for Sprint in 2010, and "I have some cautious optimism that some progress will be made with respect to special access," Hesse said. <br /> </p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4333http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4327http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/jm4VtRYEWPI/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comThe fourth quarter was another downer for EarthLink Inc. as it lost more broadband customers and saw a significant drop in revenue despite an improvement in churn and profitability.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/jm4VtRYEWPI" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-04T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=14">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>The fourth quarter was another downer for EarthLink Inc. as it lost more broadband customers and saw a significant drop in revenue despite an improvement in churn and profitability.</p> <p>EarthLink's customer count once again dwindled, but the rate did accelerate in the fourth quarter. The ISP lost 28,000 residential broadband customers, more than twice the 13,000 lost in the third quarter and 37,000 lost in the fourth quarter 2008. That left EarthLink with 804,000 residential broadband data subscribers, down 92,000 from the 896,000 subscribers it claimed at the end of 2008.</p> <p>But slowing declines in narrowband customers &ndash; down 104,000 compared to 127,000 lost in the third quarter and 173,000 lost in the prior fourth quarter &ndash; did help improve the churn which came in at 3.2%. That's down from the 3.6% churn rate in the third quarter and 3.9% churn rate in the fourth quarter a year ago.</p> <p>One reason for the slowing churn is the rising number of customers that have taken EarthLink service for two years or more. As of the fourth quarter, 84% of customers have two or more years of tenure, and 43% have five years churn, with churn of 2.9% and 2% churn respectively.</p> <p><strong>Cable contributions slow</strong></p> <p>EarthLink's traction among cable customers did slow in the fourth quarter, following launch in two new Time Warner Cable markets in mid-2009 that generated a spurt in customer additions in the second and third quarters. But late in the third quarter EarthLink saw the volume start to decline, and for the fourth quarter the 37,000 cable customers added was just about on par with the fourth quarter 2008 results and on par with historic levels.</p> <p>Still, the 37,000 gross cable additions represented a little less than 50% of the total gross additions, up from 33% in the fourth quarter 2008.</p> <p>"While we don't expect to replicate last summer's volumes as we were bringing on two new markets, we'll continue to invest in this channel as long as it makes financial sense," said EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff, during the fourth quarter earnings call.</p> <p>In 2010, that investment opportunity may not lie as much with Time Warner but rather other MSOs.</p> <p>"There are some smaller (Time Warner Cable) markets that we are looking to get into, but none the size of Los Angeles, for example, that we brought on line last year," Huff said. "The bigger opportunity would be with some of the other larger carriers."</p> <p>Data average revenue per user, however, didn't fare as well. It held more or less flat at $20.72, down slightly from the $20.75 ARPU in the third quarter and $21.18 in the prior fourth quarter. While other companies might draw criticism for flatlining ARPU, Huff spun it as a sign of stabilization.</p> <p>"We've seen ARPU remain remarkably consistent over the past several quarters," he said. With the slowing subscriber losses overall, "therefore we expect to see a continuing attenuation of our quarterly revenue declines."</p> <p>Revenue, meanwhile, continued its downward slide, totaling $164.5 million compared to $174.5 million in the third quarter and $216.1 million in the fourth quarter 2008. For the year, EarthLink netted $723.7 million in revenue, down from $955.6 million in 2008.</p> <p>EarthLink's cost-cutting measures did help boost net income to $193 million, strongly up from $29.9 million in the third quarter and $24.4 million in the fourth quarter a year ago.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4327http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4320http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/-gUjzikqq8M/ShowArticle.aspxmatts@onetouchintelligence.comComcast all-digital push propelled RGU growth higher in Q4 '09, as the company also benefited from improving basic loss trends.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/-gUjzikqq8M" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-03T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=10">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Comcast all-digital push propelled RGU growth higher in Q4 '09, as the company also benefited from improving basic loss trends.</p> <p>The MSO lost 199,000 subscribers in the quarter, down from a loss of 233,000 a year ago. That was aided by raising rates on only 6.8 million subscribers in Q4 &lsquo;09, versus 16.2 million subscribers a year ago.</p> <p>Digital additions reached 410,000, up from 247,000 a year ago, as the company continues its all-digital system push. The company added 410,000 HD/DVR subs in Q4 '09.</p> <p>Comcast also got a boost on the HSD front, adding 247,000 subscribers, a big jump from last year's 184,000 additions, aided by its wideband rollout (75% of footprint).</p> <p>On voice, the MSO added 243,000 subscribers, down from 344,000 a year ago.</p> <p>All told, RGU growth hit 701,000, versus 537,000 a year ago.</p> <p>Cable revenue grew 2.6% in the quarter, to $8.56 billion from $8.34 billion a year ago. OCF rose 1.7% to $3.47 billion from $3.41 billion.</p> <p>ARPU rose to $118.20 from $113.80 a year ago.</p> <p>CEO Brian Roberts said the MSO will deploy a new Xfinity brand on Feb. 12 in 11 markets that encompasses the new technology and features the company is rolling out.</p> <p>That includes:</p> <p>&bull; 100+ HD channels, plus 50-70 foreign language channels</p> <p>&bull; 20,000 VOD titles and 19,000 on demand online titles</p> <p>&bull; Doubling HSD speeds to as high as 100 Mbps</p> <p>&bull; New convergence services covering IP and switched digital video</p> <p>Xfinity will rollout to almost half of all systems in 2010, Roberts said.</p> <p>COO Steve Burke said the company has deployed six million digital adapters as part of its all digital transition, scheduled to reach 80% of all systems by yearend.</p> <p>On wideband, the company now passes 35 million homes with 50 Mbps capability.</p> <p>Comcast is spending about $1 billion on its wideband and all-digital rollout overall, about half in 2009 and half in 2010.</p> <p>The MSO has launched wireless in five markets or nine million homes passed. In Portland, some 40% of wireless subscribers are new HSD subs for Comcast, Burke said.</p> <p>On the hiring of Neil Smit, Roberts said "we wanted to stay very focused on all the execution of Comcast Cable. I've known him for a long time and I'm very impressed with his leadership skills. At Charter he did more than a great job in dealing with the realities of a company that had too much debt.</p> <p>Burke said there won't be a philosophy change, with Smit's hire. "He also joins a very strong team."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4320http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4318http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/kIJxzKAv1qs/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comNews Corp. closed out 2009 on an upswing, with quarterly results that included a 10% overall revenue increase, strong growth in its cable division and even an improvement in its struggling television unit.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/kIJxzKAv1qs" height="1" width="1"/>Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-02-02T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p align="right"><a href="/Company.aspx?ID=35">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>News Corp. closed out 2009 on an upswing, with quarterly results that included a 10% overall revenue increase, strong growth in its cable division and even an improvement in its struggling television unit.</p> <p>For News Corp.'s fiscal second quarter 2010 ending Dec. 31, the numbers were up strongly across its video entertainment properties. Cable revenue made healthy gains in the quarter, totaling $1.76 billion compared to $1.6 billion in the first quarter and $1.36 billion in the prior second quarter. The growth in revenue and a $604 million operating income was thanks primarily to increased revenue from Fox News Channel - and that in turn was driven by affiliate revenue rate increases. It also got a lift from increased revenue from its regional sports networks and overseas properties.</p> <p>Nor does News Corp. think the cable networks will see any dropoff in the near future, based on the strength of the Fox, Fox News and USA properties.</p> <p>"In the U.S. I think you are headed into a period where it is quality over quantity &ndash; and if you've got strong channels you will grow," said President and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, during the quarterly earnings call. With Fox News only showing signs of getting stronger, "I think those powerful channels that are going to drive it have a lot of room to grow."</p> <p><strong>TV division rebounds</strong></p> <p>News Corp.'s TV unit also made a recovery from a dismal first quarter, bringing in $1.25 billion. That was a significant improvement from the $765 million in the first quarter but still somewhat off the $1.27 billion the unit gathered in the second quarter a year ago.</p> <p>News Corp. credits increased contributions from Fox Television stations and reduced losses at MyNetwork TV, both of which offset lower contributions from Fox Broadcasting Co. It also gained a tailwind from increased advertising during the Major League Baseball playoffs and the World Series.</p> <p>Going forward News Corp. has more confidence in the business of broadcast TV thanks to a game-changing retransmission consent deal forged with Time Warner Cable that included per-subscriber fees for its Fox-owned stations. Such fees have long been the standard business model for cable channels, but not broadcast stations.</p> <p>After a heated negotiation, Fox Broadcasting and Time Warner Cable did agree Jan. 1 to a retransmission deal including the per-subscriber fees &ndash; and that was a significant step for News Corp. in strengthening the basic economics of broadcast TV, giving it a stable revenue stream in addition to more mercurial ad revenue.</p> <p>"It's a transforming event &ndash; it really puts the network on the path where it is a profitable business," Carey said. He added that the bulk of the retransmission consent deals with pay TV providers will come up for renewal in the next three to four years.</p> <p>And despite growing tension with MSOs over the rising retrains consent rates, Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch argued that the increases are not destructive to the cable business.</p> <p>"The big cable companies are making really great operating profits, and what we are asking for and even if our network and competing networks ask for and get the same, it certainly will not kill the cable companies," he said.</p> <p><strong>Advertising funnel looks promising</strong></p> <p>In advertising, News Corp. is seeing sales for broadcast and cable networks continue into 2010, with good scatter business. Much of the increase comes because prior 2008 quarters were markedly down, but nevertheless Carey said the outlook is hopeful.</p> <p>"You still have an environment where I would say you don't have the visibility you once had," he said. "But with those qualifications, what we are expecting in the marketplace is really a positive across the stations and the networks."</p> <p>The filmed entertainment division, meanwhile, posted solid revenue gains to $1.9 billion, up from $1.5 billion in the prior second quarter. Those gains came even before the majority of the revenue from the box-office hit Avatar started flowing in January. So far the film has grossed more than $2 billion world wide, and the revenue will continue once it is released on DVD in the coming year.</p> <p>Murdoch noted there will be more 3D films, but also "and exponential growth in 3D programming in the next few years."</p> <p>Elsewhere, the quarter wasn't as friendly for Digital Media Group decreased by $32 million from a year ago, principally due to lower search and advertising revenue.</p> <p>Total News Corp. revenue came in at $8.68 billion, up strongly from $7.2 billion in the first quarter and $7.87 billion in the second quarter 2009.</p> <p>Net income came in at $254 million, down somewhat from $571 million in the first quarter but better than the whopping $6.4 billion net loss in the prior second quarter &ndash; the latter driven by an $8.4 billion pretax non-cash impairment charge as News Corp. wrote down assets including FCC licenses and its newspaper and information assets.</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4318http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4312http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~3/vIQFeHB6ptk/ShowArticle.aspxkarenb@onetouchintelligence.comDespite continued complaints about its network and a series of attack ads from rival Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility’s fourth quarter saw a whopping 2.66 million net new customer additions – the second highest quarterly total in company history – eve<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OneTRAKCompanyAndSectorAnalysis/~4/vIQFeHB6ptk" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -07002010-01-28T00:00:00-07:00<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p class="text-right"><a href="/Company.aspx?id=52">View Company Profile</a></p> <p>Despite continued complaints about its network and a series of attack ads from rival Verizon Wireless, AT&amp;T Mobility's fourth quarter saw a whopping 2.66 million net new customer additions &ndash; the second highest quarterly total in company history &ndash; even as churn remained low and revenue remained high.<br /> <br /> The 2.66 million net adds were impressive, but a look at the segments raises some questions. While the total blew past the 2 million added in the third quarter and 2.1 million added in the fourth quarter 2008, postpaid net additions fell to 910,000, down from 1.39 million in the third quarter and 1.34 million in the fourth quarter last year. AT&amp;T also lost 58,000 prepaid customers, an improvement from the 176,000 lost in the third quarter but ahead of the 23,000 lost in the prior fourth quarter.</p> <p>Where AT&amp;T Mobility made up ground in net additions was reseller customers, which jumped to 1.81 million from 817,000 added in the third quarter and 776,000 in the fourth quarter a year ago. Much of that appears to have come from the emerging group of new non-phone devices led by Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook e-readers, with 1 million such devices activated in the quarter.</p> <p>So if one backs out the non-phone devices, AT&amp;T's total mobile phone customer base grew by only 1.66 million in the quarter.</p> <p><strong>iPhone delivers again</strong></p> <p>That said, there was again no doubt about the continued power of the iPhone. AT&amp;T once again scored big with the iPhone, activating 3.1 million handsets during the fourth quarter. That is, however, down only slightly from the record 3.2 million in the third quarter but well ahead of the 2.4 million activations in the second quarter.</p> <p>AT&amp;T also indicated that more than a third of the activations were among new subscribers coming from other networks, or roughly 1 million of the activations. But that is down from a historical rate of about 40% and perhaps an indication that the iPhone's magnetic pull is starting to level.</p> <p>Even with that, the iPhone led the growing base of integrated data and voice handsets, which totaled 30.2 million in the fourth quarter, almost double the 16.2 million integrated devices active on AT&amp;T's network in the prior fourth quarter. For the year, AT&amp;T activated 15 million 3G handsets &ndash; about 10.3 million of which were iPhones &ndash; up from about 11 million at the end of 2008.</p> <p>During the fourth quarter earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner noted that there still is significant opportunity to continue selling integrated devices. While 70% of new customers opted for multimedia or smartphones in the fourth quarter, overall the penetration of integrated devices among the postpaid subscriber base stands at just 46.4%.</p> <p>"I think ultimately integrated dev as a percent of postpaid can move into the 70 to 80% range," he said.</p> <p>At the close of the quarter, AT&amp;T claimed 85.1 million customers, up more than 8.1 million from 77 million at the end of 2008.</p> <p>Churn also continued its downward trend, totaling 1.44% up slightly compared to 1.43% in the third quarter but an improvement from the 1.6% in the fourth quarter a year ago. Postpaid churn came in at 1.19%, also up from 1.17% in the third quarter but lower than the 1.2% in the fourth quarter 2008.</p> <p><strong>Data grows, voice declines</strong></p> <p>The larger base of smartphones led to higher data average revenue per user, which topped $15.56 That's up from $15.05 in the third quarter and $13.50 in the prior fourth quarter. ARPU from customers with integrated devices continues to pull in about 1.8 times that amount, or $27.09. While AT&amp;T didn't provide numbers, it did note that text messaging rose 70% year-over-year, while multimedia messaging doubled.</p> <p>Data revenue also rose correspondingly, hitting $3.87 billion compared to $3.64 billion in the third quarter and $3.01 billion in the fourth quarter a year ago. For the full year, data revenue contributed $14.13 billion to parent AT&amp;T, up from $10.56 billion in 2008.</p> <p>But as with rival Verizon Wireless, AT&amp;T's voice business proved a drag on overall ARPU, which came in at $50.69, down from $51.21 in the third quarter and $50.82 in the fourth quarter 2008. As rival Verizon Wireless indicated earlier in the week, voice ARPU was the culprit, dropping more than $1 to $35.13 from $36.16 in the third quarter and $37.32 in the fourth quarter last year.</p> <p>"On ARPUs, have seen some pressure in ARPUs primarily in voice," Lindner said. "Some of it is certainly economy related &ndash; people managing their plans and their voice spend. I think that will improve as the economy improves."</p> <p>He also noted the switch to new data plans for smartphones and integrated phones &ndash; which require at minimum a $20 data or messaging plan &ndash; will help buoy ARPU going forward. As those pricing change moves through the customer base and customers upgrade, "there is some additional ARPU opportunity there."</p> <p>Total revenue, meanwhile, rose to $13.84 billion from $13.65 billion in the third quarter and $12.86 billion in the prior fourth quarter. Wireless revenue constituted 45% of AT&amp;T's total revenue for the quarter, continuing its role as the telco's fattest cash cow.</p> <p>In all, AT&amp;T Mobility contributed $53.6 billion to AT&amp;T in 2009, up from $49.34 billion in 2008.Net income was $3.43 billion, up from $3.36 billion in the third quarter and $2.69 billion in the fourth quarter a year ago.</p> <p><strong>Network damage control continues</strong></p> <p>AT&amp;T President and Operations CEO John Stankey was in full damage control mode regarding efforts to improve AT&amp;T Mobility's network performance and capacity. Media and consumer attention is still focused on complaints of poor data throughputs and dropped calls, and the carrier did accelerate upgrades in the fourth quarter.</p> <p>In 2009 overall, AT&amp;T added 1,900 new cell sites, 100,000 new backhaul circuits, doubled the number of fiber-connected cell sites and expanded 3G coverage to 4,100 new sites with a total broadband reach covering 360 cities.</p> <p>The carrier's own internal tests indicate that broadband data throughputs rose more than 19% from January to December 2009. Voice quality its two trouble spots &ndash; San Francisco and New York City &ndash; have also improved, although it does not appear throughputs have, according to the statistics AT&amp;T included in the earnings presentation materials.</p> <p>In the next 90 days, AT&amp;T plans to add third and fourth radio carriers in New York City to increase capacity. With the new cell cite controllers now installed in Manhattan, the carrier can increase capacity by a third in the high density parts of the island by the end of the quarter.</p> <p>In San Francisco, AT&amp;T is adding cell towers, with high capacity antenna systems to large public venues such as stadiums and transportation routes.</p> <p>"We expect significant improvement in both markets in the coming months," Stankey said.</p> <p><strong>iPad impact?</strong></p> <p>On a related front Apple Inc. is preparing to roll out the iPad device some time in late March, with AT&amp;T offering optional 3G data plans at either $15 or $30 monthly price points. Sales volume for this unsubsidized device could be high initially, but it remains to be seen how many iPad customers will chose the AT&amp;T 3G data plans.</p> <p>Supporting the iPad will be less expensive without a subsidy, so "it really comes down to forecast of usage on the device," Lindner said. "There, our expectation of the device is that is going to be somewhere between our highest usage integrated device &ndash; say an iPhone &ndash; and a laptop environment."</p> <p>That might sound like a potential problem given AT&amp;T's already strained cellular broadband grid, but Lindner noted that AT&amp;T believes that iPads will primarily be used in homes, offices, coffee shops and airports &ndash; all areas where there are often Wi-Fi networks, which will shunt the traffic from the device from the cellular network.</p> <p>"We'll have to monitor the usage as the device gets out there, and if the usage is different, then we will adapt to it," he added.</p> <p><strong>HSPA 7.2 on track</strong></p> <p>Elsewhere, AT&amp;T also is readying to turn up its High Speed Packet Access 7.2 network upgrade, which could theoretically double current HSPA speeds and spike to 7.2 Mbps in the downlink, at least in theory.</p> <p>Stankey noted AT&amp;T already offers 10 devices including the iPhone 3GS that are HSPA 7.2 capable, and the new iPad device also is compatible.</p> <p>But while the software is now active in cell tower sites, AT&amp;T has not fully turned up the HSPA 7.2 base stations to full throughput capacity. Stankey said AT&amp;T still needs to build out backhaul systems to accommodate the higher user throughputs.</p> <p>Still, Stankey said the early field tests of the HSPA 7.2 upgrade are encouraging in areas where the network is supported by Ethernet fiber backhaul. In those areas, throughput has increased almost 50% during peak usage times.</p> <p>"We anticipate that the majority of our mobile data traffic will be carried over the expanded fiber backhaul network by the end of the year," Stankey said.</p> <p>Headed into 2010, wireless is AT&amp;T's top investment priority. Of the planned $18 billion to $19 billion in total capital expenditures, about $2 billion will be earmarked for wireless network and backhaul upgrades &ndash; twice the spending seen in 2009. Stankey said Ethernet backhaul deployment will increase 10 times 2009 levels, and fiber extensions to cell sites will rise three times last year's spending.</p> <p>In all, the carrier will extend its 3G network to cover an additional 400,000 square miles, even as it starts LTE trials in two markets later in the year.</p> <p>Of the latter, Stankey once again sounded a cautious note regarding how quickly the 4G technology can be rolled out.</p> <p>"We are past the assessment phase and know where we are going on the technology and how we're going to deploy it," he said. But he also held to his assessment of LTE's readiness in terms of products and support ecosystem, saying that "I don't expect that to be mature until 201l."</p> </div>http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4312