Commonwealth gets boost from CLEC operations

Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises report a jump in revenue and earnings per share from the fourth quarter of 2002. But more impressively, the company also reported that its access lines grew 5% from the fourth quarter of 2001 to 464,498 in large part from its CLEC “edge out” unit, CTSI.

For the fourth quarter of 2002, CTE reported diluted earnings per share of 78 cents versus 40 cents in year ago quarter. Recurring diluted EPS was 62, reflecting a 5 cent per share positive after-tax settlement in connection with certain restructuring charges recorded in the 2000 fourth quarter, as well as an $0.11 per share favorable impact resulting from a tentative operating tax settlement. For the 2002 full year, CTE reported diluted EPS of $2.41, versus a reported diluted EPS of $1.83 for the 2001 full year.

Going forward, the company is predicting access line growth of 3% to 4%, which translates into 14,000 to 18,000 net new access lines.

“Clearly the greater majority of those line adds will be coming from CTSI,” Michael J. Mahoney, president and chief executive officer of Commonwealth said today during a call with analysts and investors. “At [the ILEC unit], the trend in the last few years, would likely point you to relatively flat line growth. We do not expect to have negative access line growth.”

Additionally, the company said it would expand its CLEC operations into select areas of Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.