SBC Communications reported Q1 revenues of $10.3 billion, compared with $10.5 billion in the year-ago period. SBC reported earnings per diluted share of $0.74 before the cumulative effects of accounting changes and $1.50 after the cumulative effects of accounting changes. This compares with first-quarter 2002 results of earnings per diluted share of $0.48 before the effects of accounting changes. SBC said first-quarter results reflect robust growth in DSL and long-distance subscribers despite continued revenue pressure and access line loss due to the economic and competitive environments. Some highlights:
- Added 270,000 DSL subscribers, bringing its total to 2.5 million. Q1 represented its 5th consecutive quarter of sequential DSL subscriber growth and the largest quarterly subscriber gain so far. The addressable DSL footprint now covers 66% of SBC’s consumer and small business lines. SBC expects DSL to be EBITDA positive on a total product basis in early 2004.
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Added 1.5 million long-distance lines, bringing its total to 7.6 million. In the first three weeks of April, SBC added approximately 450,000 long-distance lines. In California, SBC now has a long-distance retail line penetration of 13% for the consumer segment and 10% overall.
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SBC’s interLATA revenues were up 38% compared to Q1 2002, because of the increased number of LD subscribers, especially in California, where average monthly revenues per line are more than 50% higher than in SBC’s southwestern states.
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Local voice revenues declined 9.2% year-over-year and 3.1% sequentially, reflecting declines in retail access lines. Total access lines declined by 405,000 in Q1, compared with a decline of 545,000 in Q4 2002 and a decline of 496,000 in Q1 2002. Retail access lines declined by 1.05 million, 70% of which were for consumers. SBC lost 770,000 retail access lines to UNE-P competitors, compared with a loss of 810,000 UNE-P lines in Q4 2002. At the end of Q1, SBC was serving 5.784 million UNE-P lines and 1.754 million UNE-L loops.
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Data revenues for the quarter were $2.5 billion, up 3.7% from Q1 2002. High-capacity transport revenues increased 1.4% over Q4 2002. DSL/Internet revenues were up 12% over Q4.
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CAPEX was $897 million, compared with $1.8 billion in both Q1 and Q4 2002.
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Total debt, net of cash, was reduced by $3.1 billion during the quarter and by $11.3 billion, or 42%, from the end of Q1 2002. Total debt net of cash at the end of the first quarter was $15.4 billion.
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Cingular Wireless added 189,000 net subscribers, giving it a total of 22.1 million.
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- As of 31-March-03, SBC was serving 56.7 million total switched access lines.
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Total minutes of use for Q1, including interstate, intrastate, and wireless switched access minutes of use, was 64.2 billion minutes, down 3.9% from the prior quarter.