Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Embarq says profits steady despite losing customers

Embarq, the main local telephone company in Las Vegas, today said its quarterly profit remained steady even as it continued to lose landline customers.

Embarq reported revenue of $1.48 billion for the fourth quarter, a decline of 6.2 percent from the prior-year period. Its profit of $191 million, or $1.34 per share, compared to $190 million and $1.23 a year earlier.

Embarq has some 1,000 employees and more than 773,000 access lines in the Las Vegas area, a spokeswoman said.

Cost containment efforts resulted in expenses falling from $1.207 billion in the 2007 quarter to $1.061 billion in the 2008 period.

The company, based in Overland Park, Kan., said that in 2008 it continued to lose landline customers as consumers dropped wired phones and instead exclusively used cell phones; or as consumers switched to wired competitors such as Cox Communications that offer telephone service through their networks.

The company ended the year with 5.7 million access lines, 9.8 percent less than at the end of 2007.

Embarq added 24,000 high-speed Internet subscribers during the quarter, bringing its subscriber base to 1.41 million at the end of the year, a 10.6 percent increase from year-end 2007.

Video net additions were 13,000 during the quarter, and the company ended the period with 297,000 of its customers subscribing to video services -- up 48.5 percent from year-end 2007.

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