BellSouth CFO reiterates data outlook

BellSouth CFO Ron Dykes said today that the RBOC still anticipates generating close to $5 billion in data revenues this year, in line with early guidance provided by the company.

Presenting at the CIBC World Markets conference today in New York, Dykes said the company’s DSL revenue jumped 141%, optical revenue rose 32% and DS-3 revenues increased 25% in the first quarter. At the same time, the company is still dealing with a loss of access lines and general malaise hitting the telecom sector.

“Telecom generally lags the economy going into a recession and lags coming out,” he said. “Access lines are a reasonable indicator of the voice business but have little to do with data.”

Last week, the company introduced a series of data products at Supercomm and anticipates putting on a strong marketing push throughout the third quarter. In the DSL market in particular, BellSouth has reached a penetration rate of only 4.8% of all available lines. However even at that level, the company is learning valuable lessons, said Dykes. One of the most important: when BellSouth bundles DSL with advanced support options, customer churn goes down 70%.

On the international front, the company has put its Latin American investments in holding pattern due to instability in Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela. In Europe, BellSouth is headed for the exits.

“We have liquidated our interest in KPN, and we will continue to liquidate as opportunity presents itself,” said Dykes.

--Vince Vittore, Executive News Editor