EarthLink Inc. on Tuesday said it is gaining broadband
customers, just as it sees growing defections from its dial-up subscriber
network.
To stem some of the effects of that churn, EarthLink also made another announcement saying it has selected Circuit City for “national retail distribution” of its dial-up business.
The Atlanta-based ISP on Tuesday issued its second-quarter financial
results, posting a smaller than expected loss. The ISP cut its costs, but
broadband growth was tempered by the dial-up slump. The company trimmed it
outlook for the future.
EarthLink said revenues grew to $352.3 million, or 5 percent, which was
slightly less than Wall Street analysts expected. EarthLink said its second
quarter net loss was $15.3 million, or 10 cents a share, compared to a loss
of $40.4 million, or 27 cents a share, for the same period last year.
EarthLink said it expects to post a 2003 net loss of $86 million to $100
million. For the third quarter, the company expects total subscribers to
grow at similar to the performance in the second quarter with revenue
totaling $350 million, compared with average analysts’ estimates of $361.1
million. EarthLink also said it is cutting its revenue outlook to about $1.4
billion, from its April outlook of $1.44 billion to $1.5 billion.
EarthLink said its total online subscriber base rose close to 4 percent from a year ago to 5 million. The company said they have added 102,000 broadband subscribers, which amounted to a 64-percent increase, bringing its total to 993,000.
EarthLink said it expects to add 230,000 to 280,000 broadband subscribers by
the end of 2003, which would bring its total to between 5 to 5.15 million
total subscribers. That estimate is a revision of an earlier forecast of
between 5.1 million to 5.3 million broadband subscribers.
“Broadband revenues grew 53.0 percent over the second quarter of 2002 to
$88.5 million and now represent 25.1 percent of EarthLink’s total revenues.
Narrowband revenues were $245.4 million in the quarter, down 5.9 percent
from the prior year quarter, due to a decline in traditional dial-up
subscribers,” EarthLink said in its statement of financial results in the
quarter ending June 30, 2003.
EarthLink said the total number of dial-up subscribers fell by 4.9 percent
bringing the total to 3.9 million subscribers. The drop in dial-up
subscriptions may be driving EarthLink to improve its “narrowband”
marketing.
PeoplePC Online, the company’s value-priced narrowband service, added approximately 78,000 subscribers to end the second quarter with 197,000 subscribers while the traditional premium narrowband subscriber base shrank 3.9 percent in the quarter.
“This slight uptick reflects early-life churn from the high level of subscriber additions in the first quarter and an increase in narrowband subscribers leaving for broadband over the past year,” EarthLink said in its earnings statement.
To help fight the churn, EarthLink struck the deal with Circuit City EarthLink will also launch with a consumer promotion that offers Circuit City shoppers a $50 Circuit City gift card when they sign up for six months of EarthLink service. As a part of a prior agreement, customers can still sign up for broadband service in select Circuit City locations, EarthLink said in a press release. EarthLink also said it is adding “web acceleration” to its
Rob Kaiser, EarthLink’s vice president of narrowband marketing said in a
Other EarthLink Unlimited services include EarthLink’s Total Access. 2003 Among the pitfalls to watch out for, EarthLink said, is an ongoing to aid its dial-up business. The new agreement calls for distribution of EarthLink Dial-Up Internet service through in-store disks as well as in-store presence in their
personal computing area.
EarthLink Unlimited, which the company says boosts dial-up speeds by up to
five times. EarthLink said the faster dial-up service will be available in
the third quarter.
press release that “our dial-up customers will now be able to surf the Web
up to five times faster than regular narrowband services at EarthLink’s
standard $21.95-a-month price.”
software, which contains Pop-Up Blocker and spamBlocker, instant messaging,
8 email addresses, 10 MB of Web-space and a customizable Personal Start
Page, the company said in a statement.
renegotiations with Charter Communications for a
broadband cable deal, which could negatively impact EarthLink’s results.
