NEW YORK-Not unexpectedly, the multiservice telecommunications giants led the way in revenues and profits for the first half of this year.
Profit leaders
Bell Atlantic Corp. led in profits for the period, posting $2.315 billion, a 19.5-percent increase from the same period of 1998. It traded places with SBC Communications Inc., which held the top spot in profits for the same period last year.
SBC ranked second during the first half of this year, earning profits of $2.291 billion, up 15 percent compared with the first half of 1998.
AT&T Corp. produced an impressive 83.54 percent increase in profits, to $2.063 billion. It thereby gained third place in the category this year and moved up two notches from the fifth place it held last year. GTE Corp., which posted a gain of nearly 107.12 percent in profits, to nearly $1.69 billion, was the only carrier with a wireless business unit to exceed AT&T’s percentage increase in profits during the first half of 1999.
BellSouth Corp., which ranked third during the first six months of 1998 in terms of overall profits, moved down to fifth place, based on a decline of 6.7 percent to show a profit of about $1.595 billion.
Only two of the wireless pure plays within the major carriers group posted gains in profits during the first half of 1999. U S Cellular Corp. earned $222.7 million, a 37.02-percent gain. Vodafone AirTouch plc earned $491.95 million, a 33.86-percent increase.
Among all the major players, only two additional carriers that include wireless in their income reported profit increases during the first half of this year. British Telecom plc earned nearly $1.77 billion, a 23.89-percent rise. U S West Inc. earned $818 million, representing a rise of 7.49 percent.
Sprint PCS saw its profits decline the most in aggregate dollars of any carrier within the major players. It reported a loss of $1.16 billion during the first half of 1999, compared with a $298 million loss during the same period a year earlier. However, its revenues rose by more than 186 percent, to $1.34 billion.
Pulling in right below Sprint PCS, Nextel Communications Inc. posted losses of about $707.15 million, although this figure represented a decline in losses from the $745.6 million it experienced during the comparable prior period. Nextel also experienced a substantial gain of 95 percent in revenues, to nearly $1.46 billion, during the first half of 1999.
Revenue leaders
AT&T placed first in overall revenues, as it did during the first half of 1998. It earned nearly $2.98 billion during the first six months of the year, a 14.38-percent hike from the year-ago half.
MCI WorldCom Inc., which is hoping to buy Sprint PCS in order to own a wireless network provider, ranked third this year, gaining revenues of $17.95 billion, a rise of more than 266 percent from the first six months of 1998.
Bell Atlantic, which placed second during the 1998 period, moved down a notch to third place on revenues of approximately $16.3 billion, representing an increase of about 4.4 percent.
Except for British Telecom and Paging Network Inc., all carriers among those listed experienced revenue increases during the first half of 1999 relative to the comparable period in 1998.
BT experienced a sharp 88.87-percent decrease in revenues to about $1.4 billion from approximately $12.6 billion.
PageNet, which recently agreed to merge with Arch Communications Group Inc., saw its revenues drop slightly to $518.12 million from about $520.25 million.
