BellSouth said its first-quarter profit jumped 30% to $1.6 billio...
BellSouth said its first-quarter profit jumped 30% to $1.6 billion, but total operating revenue slid 0.8% to $4.98 billion. The results include $449 million income from sale of the carrier’s interest in its 10 Latin American operations to Telefonica…
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Moviles, which includes an $11 million gain from foreign currency and a one-time tax benefit of $424 million. The transaction is expected to close in the 2nd half of 2004. The results don’t include the company’s 40% share in Cingular Wireless. Including Cingular, BellSouth said its revenue rose 2% to $6.6 billion, and its normalized income from continuing operations was $888 million, compared to $924 million in the first quarter of 2003. BellSouth said growth in revenue from long distance and DSL offset access line declines, keeping its Communications Group revenue flat at $4.5 billion. It said its total access lines of 22.1 million at March 31 declined 3.6%, compared to a year earlier, while residence and business access lines served by its competitors under UNE-P increased by 301,000 in the first quarter. The company added 636,000 long distance customers during the first quarter, to a total of 4.6 million, and 35% penetration of its mass-market customers by quarter-end. It said the growth was driven by unlimited long distance plans and new flat rate calling plans. It also added 156,000 net DSL customers, ending the quarter with 1.6 million. Led by DSL, data revenue slightly grew to $1.1 billion from a year- ago quarter. Operating margin for the quarter was 25.6%, compared to 26.3% for the full year in 2003.