Qwest Communications reported a Q1 net loss of $310 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, on revenue of $3.48 billion — a decline of 3.9% compared to Q1 2003. However, the decrease in revenue was less than in Q4, when overall revenue fell 5.6% compared to a year earlier. Some highlights from Q1:
- CAPEX for Q1 totaled $455 million, versus $429 million in the first quarter of 2003. The increase is primarily associated with the deployment of additional DSL facilities. In Q1, Qwest deployed 1,100 DSL remote terminals.
- added a record 1.2 million local service area long-distance lines in the quarter, nearly doubling the 606,000 lines added in Q4 2003. Total long-distance lines increased 52 percent sequentially to 3.5 million in Q1.
- added 107,000 DSL subscribers, a 78 percent improvement over the 60,000 subscribers added in Q4 2003. Total subscribers increased to 744,000 at the end of the first quarter, a 41 percent increase over the previous year.
- Total access lines decreased 1% from Q4 2003, which is comparable to trends seen in the last several quarters. Encouragingly, primary consumer access line losses in the first quarter improved 43 percent sequentially — with 97,000 lines lost in the current quarter from 169,000 in the fourth quarter of 2003. In addition, Unbundled Network Element Platform (UNE-P) line additions declined 30 percent to 95,000 additions in the current quarter from 135,000 additions in the fourth quarter of 2003.
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