Qwest income down nearly 50% in Q4 2008

Qwest's income took a significant dip in the fourth quarter of 2008, as its $185 million in earnings represented a 49% decrease from its 2007 fourth-quarter earnings of $366 million.

The dip in net income coincided with a 3.5% drop in operating revenues, which totaled $3.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008. Qwest reported revenues of $943 million for its voice services, a decline of 9.3% from the $1.04 billion in voice service revenues it reported in the fourth quarter of 2007. The company also saw its wireless service revenues drop to $89 million, a 32.6% decline from the $132 million it reported in the fourth quarter of 2007.

For the year, Qwest reported a net income of $681 million, which marked a 77% decline from the $2.9 billion earnings the company reported in 2007. The company saw a 9.6% drop in its total number of access lines in 2008, as it reported having 11.6 million total access lines by the end of the year. The company also reported a 13% drop in its wireless subscribers, which totaled 717,000 at the end of 2008. On the plus side, Qwest saw its number of broadband subscribers increase 9% to 2.8 million and its total video subscribers increase 23% to 798,000.

Qwest CEO Edward Muller says that despite lower net earnings from the previous year, the company has been improving its profitability throughout the year on a quarter-by-quarter basis.

"Our improved profitability in the fourth quarter reflects an intense focus by the entire team," he says. "Under challenging market conditions, we delivered strong performance across each of our business units. The execution that we demonstrated over the past couple of quarters will provide a solid foundation in the current difficult economic climate."