Hawaiian Telecom’s 2011 financial reports illustrate a broader trend in the fixed network business. Hawaiian Telecom revenue was $98.9 million for the fourth quarter and $395.2 million for the year, and included declining access line revenue, but growth in business services, wholesale and broadband.
Those trends point out the growing importance of business segment revenues and broadband, for virtually all service providers with a business customer to chase.
Up to this point, business segment revenue has been vital for the tier-one providers and virtually all competitive local exchange carriers, including CLEC units owned and operated by incumbent local exchange carriers.
For many ILECs, retail business customer revenue is growing in importance, as well. Retail business revenue increased two percent year-over-year, Hawaiian Telecom says.
Wholesale revenue also increased 1.8 percent for the full year 2011. What is significant in that regard is that the revenue was driven by fiber-to-the-tower sales. That has been true almost across the board in 2011. But that revenue also will start to dwindle in several years, as mobile backhaul upgrades to support Long Term Evolution are completed.
Consumer revenue was driven by video services and high-speed Internet access. Business and broadband are the growth areas for fixed network service providers.
