CenturyTel Inc. Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-08-06 19:44:11.0

Tags: Billing, Embarq Corp., Broadband, Call Transcript, Earnings, Pricing Strategy, Pricing, Marketing Research, Broadband Internet, Network Technology, Telecommunications, Marketing, Networking, Seeking Alpha, CenturyTel

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from Simon Flannery – Morgan Stanley.

Simon Flannery – Morgan Stanley

I wonder if you could just give us a little bit more detail about what's really happened in the past month or so since you closed the merger. I think you talked a little bit about some pricing changes in broadband. Perhaps you could provide a little bit more color, and to what extent that was in the EMBARQ markets versus the CenturyTel markets and if there's been any material change in headcount since July 1st?

And then as we go forward, I think you talked about the billing system plans, but if you could give us some more color around the rebranding and how you expect to go forward with that?

Glen Post

As far as changes we've made thus far, we've rolled out a pure broadband product targeting non-customers in the EMBARQ markets that they had rolled out on a smaller scale earlier but we're really rolling this product out throughout their markets and we expect to see in the months – it won't happen immediately, but we expect to see good results from that effort.

We also rolled out a promotional plan with a $14.95 headline price for DSL. We rolled that out this month as well. We expect to start seeing results from that in the weeks ahead, so those are the first two things we've done there. But really overall we're just going to really focus on targeting the underserved areas such as the pure broadband I talked about and a new focus on a [utilities]-based video offering later on this year or early 2010.

We're building a strong original marketing team. We really already have it in place, that's capable of tailoring the marketing approach by geography. We'll be tiering the markets with different offerings which had not been done to any great degree within the EMBARQ operation. So we'll be showing pricing or offering different pricing structures and tactics based on market tiering, and then really a more aggressive direct response marketing strategy that we offer that enable the customers to have an immediate response.

EMBARQ began rolling this out late 2008 but we'll really intensify that network. So that's our approach to the market. As far as headcount changes since July 1st, not really significant changes, there have been some reductions but nothing significant yet. As you know the most significant headcount reductions will be as we convert the, first the financial systems later this year and then as we continue to have the billing, customer care conversions which will take place over the next 24 to 36 months.

 

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