EarthLink Studying Performance of Its Municipal Wi-Fi Business
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070426/earthlink_wi_fi.html?.v=2
ATLANTA (AP) -- EarthLink Inc. said Thursday it will study the
performance of its municipal wireless Internet networks in four cities
-- Philadelphia, New Orleans and California's Anaheim and Milpitas --
before deciding how to move forward with similar Wi-Fi networks elsewhere.
While more cities are expressing interest in striking deals with the
company, EarthLink is "not yet able to establish that comfort level"
that the investments are really profitable, said Kevin Dotts,
EarthLink's chief financial officer.
That doesn't mean EarthLink is pulling the plug on cities under
contract, like Houston, which would eventually be the nation's largest
network at about 600 square miles, Dotts said. Instead, the company
wants to review a range of factors to determine where it would be most
profitable to invest what Dotts estimates are up to $40 million a year
in capital expenditure.
Such factors include topography -- less dense cities like Atlanta are
harder to cover; concentration of households; and alternative revenue
opportunities, Dotts said.
He added the company will closely study the four designated markets over
the next few months before defining its strategy. He said it will
probably focus any expansion on large metropolitan areas like Chicago.
Also Thursday, Atlanta-based EarthLink announced it posted a loss of
$29.96 million, or 24 cents per share, in the latest period. A year ago,
it had reported earnings of $16.3 million, or 12 cents per share.
Revenue rose to $324.4 million, up 4.7 percent from $309.7 million in
the first quarter of 2006.
-------------------------------
http://wireless.seekingalpha.com/article/34001
Earthlink last week said it would review operations at its current muni
wi-fi networks before deciding whether to expand into more markets. The
issue, the company said, is that it isn’t sure the business is going to
be profitable.
--
WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
