Lumen, despite all of the PR and AI noise, reported revenues of $2.37 billion, down 2.7% year on year. And that is after selling the FTTH unit to AT&T.
Cogent reported revenues of $239M, down 3.2% YoY, with a massive network spanning 20K miles of fiber optic cable and connecting 3,200 buildings worldwide. Hard to believe they do so little revenue on that network. Maybe the gutting the channel program wasn’t the answer.
First this year, it was all about these company’s being the AI connectivity play. Now they are all chasing Waves. Make up your mind!
Truthfully, the telcos are in a bad position. They need ANY revenue! More competition for fiber gets deployed every week. Starlink and 5G FWA is gaining ground. And, quite frankly, the demand for 10GB and above is NOT as widespread as most fiber providers hope. There are a limited number of buyers for 40GB, 100Gb and higher. Very limited. Even if providers think otherwise. I have TV stations and video producers as clients and they use multiple vendors to get 3GB (3x1GB) with diversity. Even big video producers are using 10GB+.
Trying to find dark fiber right now: Hard. Providers want to offer lit. Recurring revenue instead of a 20 year lease.
All the PR in the world isn’t going to create demand for more wavelengths.