SBC Adds 504,000 DSL Subscribers in Q1

SBC Communications announced its best quarter for DSL to date, adding 504,000 net DSL lines in Q1 and giving it a total base of 5.6 million lines in service. Over the past four quarters, SBC has added more than 1.6 million DSL lines. The company also added 1.1 million long distance lines to reach 22 million. Some highlights for Q1:


Revenues - SBC's first-quarter 2005 revenues increased 2.4% to $10.2 billion, with wireline revenues up 2.8% and consumer wireline revenues up 3.9% , marking SBC's fourth consecutive quarter of positive revenue growth. Earnings were $885 million, or $0.27 per diluted share on a reported basis, and $1.1 billion, or $0.34 per diluted share before merger-related expenses at Cingular Wireless, which is 60% owned by SBC.


Bundles - SBC's penetration of retail consumer lines with at least one key service - long distance, DSL, joint-billed Cingular Wireless or SBC | DISH Network video - increased to 64 percent at the end of the first quarter, up from 50 percent a year earlier. Driven by success with bundled services, SBC's average revenue per retail consumer access line increased 8.4 percent versus the year-ago first quarter.


Data Revenues - Wireline data revenues grew 6.7 percent to $2.8 billion, driven by robust DSL/Internet growth, along with solid results in transport and integration services. SBC ranks No. 1 among its immediate peers in total data revenues.


Access Lines - SBC posted significant improvement in retail access line trends in the first quarter. Total retail consumer primary lines increased by 16,000, SBC's first quarterly gain in this category in five years and a substantial upturn from declines of 73,000 in the preceding quarter and 156,000 in the first quarter a year ago. Consumer additional lines declined by 104,000 in the first quarter, versus declines of 119,000 in the preceding quarter and 149,000 in the first quarter of 2004. This was SBC's smallest decline in additional lines in four years. SBC's retail business line base declined by 45,000, compared with declines of 74,000 in the preceding quarter and 242,000 in the first quarter a year ago. SBC's switched wholesale lines declined by 343,000 due to a 364,000 decline in UNE-P lines. In the preceding quarter, switched wholesale lines declined by 302,000, and in the first quarter of 2004 they increased by 135,000. SBC ended the first quarter of 2005 with 51.9 million total switched access lines.

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