Thursday, December 05, 2013

Is Windstream a Fortune 500?

Windstream CEO Jeff Gardner presented at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2013 Leveraged Finance Conference Monday. It's a pitch to sell debt, prove stock value, blah blah. Oh, the things that CEO's of public companies have to do. Dance, you monkey, dance. Anyhow...


Gardner talks about the ARPU increase in broadband, explaining that folks are choosing higher speeds. I thought it was a rate increase. Also, some of the ARPU increase is due to cross-selling items like anti-virus protection.


72% is a significant number. WIND broadband penetration is 72% - which is high. 72% of revenue comes from broadband, which is crazy when you consider that they sell lots of T1's as well.


Due to CAF funds, WIND will be building out to new rural areas where they will be the sole broadband provider (in theory, although they will face competition from satellite and some WISPs). The take rate for broadband in these CAF areas should be 72% or higher as well. However, "Gardner noted that areas where construction will be funded through the CAF program have an average of eight access lines per square mile, compared with 19 lines per square mile in the company’s overall business." That is Rural!


The preso is here in PDF.

No comments: