Earthlink Dropping But So What

EarthLink's revenue is doing the same thing as Sprint revenue and subscriber counts - dropping. But while Sprint is in free fall, ELN knew that it was going to lose customers - dial-up and broadband. Apparently New Edge Networks isn't bringing in enough revenue to make up for the losses. I would suggest that it never will. DSL is such a low margin business especially when you consider the infrastructure expense for nationwide footprint.

"The company’s total customer base fell from over three million at the end of September 2008 to 2.3 million a year later. Of these, 832,000 retail customers were contracted to broadband services at the end of Q309, down from 845,000 three months earlier." 3Q09 revenue is down to $174.5M (24%) according to Telegeography. Fierce points out that the revenue has dipped to $174.5M from $185.6M last quarter and $230.8M in the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile, Sprint has lost money and subscribers again. According to reports, "The Overland Park, Kan.-based company said it lost $478 million in the quarter, compared to a $326 million loss in the same period of 2008. ... It also said it lost 545,000 subscribers, including 801,000 postpaid customers who sign annual contracts -- an improvement over the 1.3 million loss in the third quarter last year." Hoo boy.

BTW, Level3 revenue dropped as well. 3Q08 revnue was $916M in 3Q09; $1.07 billion for 3Q08 and $942M in 2Q09. The net loss for 3Q09 was $170M, $129M loss in 3Q08 and $134M in 2Q09 -- so revenue dropping, prices declining, and losses increasing. Oops!

Qwest was profitable but its revenue dipped 6% to about $1B. The big news is: "The company lost 328,000 customers during the quarter". "Qwest is the fourth-largest phone provider behind Century­Link with roughly 7 million lines at the end of the quarter, down 12 percent from last year."

Fairpoint in Bankruptcy. Qwest dipping. Without cellular spectrum to help stem the landline losses, ILECs are in trouble. Consumer pressure from DirecTV and Cable bundles are hurting revenue and landline losses. And fiber is needed to compete. An expensive proposition. Gary Kim suggests that some of them just go after Business clients.

Telco revenue seems to be on the decline overall - except of course for the iPhone network and its twin.