Wednesday, July 20, 2005

SBC's Earnings Dip, 360,000 DSL Adds in Q2

SBC's second-quarter 2005 revenues totaled $10.3 billion, up 1.3 percent versus the year-earlier second quarter and EPS were $0.43 before Cingular merger-related costs and a charge for termination of an agreement with WilTel Communications, which will continue to provide transitional and out-of-market long distance services to SBC under a new agreement following the close of SBC's planned acquisition of AT&T.


Some highlights for the quarter:

  • Wireline revenues totaled $9.4 billion, up 1.6 percent from $9.2 billion in the second quarter of 2004. Wireline business revenues increased 4.8 percent, and consumer revenues grew 2.6 percent. The growth in business and consumer revenues was partially offset by declines in wholesale revenues.


  • Wireline data revenues grew 9.9 percent versus results in the year-earlier second quarter to an SBC record of $3 billion, driven by DSL/Internet growth, along with solid results in transport and integration services.


  • DSL - SBC added 360,000 DSL lines in Q2, as the company said it was affected by end-of-school-year seasonality. This compares with a net gain of 315,000 DSL lines in Q2 a year ago. SBC ended June with 6 million DSL lines in service. Consumer DSL penetration of its primary retail lines now stands at 21%. DSL/Internet revenues grew 21.8 percent versus the second quarter of 2004 and were up 5 percent from the first quarter of this year.


  • Project Lightspeed -- SBC said it now expects a controlled introduction a the end of 2005 or early 2006 and plans to add more features, functionality and markets in mid-2006.


  • Satellite TV -- SBC ended Q2 with 404,000 SBC Dish subscribers, a net gain of 10,000 for the quarter.


  • Long Distance - SBC's total long distance lines increased by 770,000 to 22.8 million in service. At the end of Q2, 61 percent of SBC's consumer retail lines and 42 percent of its retail business voice lines included long distance service.


  • Access Lines - SBC's total retail consumer primary lines declined by 186,000, again reflecting end-of-school-year seasonality. This compares with a decline of 394,000 in the year-earlier second quarter and a gain of 16,000 in Q1 2005. Consumer additional lines declined by 110,000 in Q2 versus a decline of 164,000 in Q2 2004 and a decline of 104,000 in Q1 2005. SBC's retail business line base increased by 6,000 in Q2, compared with a decline of 228,000 in Q2 a year ago and a decline of 45,000 in Q1 2005. As expected, SBC's switched wholesale lines declined by 527,000 in Q2 2005 due to a 690,000 decline in UNE-P lines. Switched wholesale lines increased by 137,000 in Q2 2004 and declined by 343,000 in Q1 2005. SBC ended the second quarter of 2005 with 51 million total switched access lines.


  • SBC generated $3.8 billion in cash from operations and received an additional $586 million in cash from Cingular Wireless.
http://www.sbc.com