Mpower Communications Issues Revised Financial Forecasts
ROCHESTER, NY - September 7, 2000 - Mpower Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:MPWR), a leading provider of broadband data, Internet and telephony services to business customers, today revised its financial outlook for the third and fourth quarters of 2000.
"Our business plan has centered around a facilities-based bundled services offering without reliance on non-recurring or wholesale revenue streams," said Rolla P. Huff, Mpower Communications President and Chief Executive Officer. "We have pioneered the introduction
of commercial Voice-over-SDSL (Symmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) applications and are a leading provider of retail SDSL services on a national scale. These success points differentiate us in the marketplace."
"As we rapidly built out a national SDSL network over the past nine months, we have been faced with the ILECs' inability to adequately provision VoSDSL capable loops at levels concurrent with our customer demand," added Huff. "To accommodate the growing demand for our bundled service offering, we began to retrofit our new network to also provide voice services over traditional POTS lines. This initiative has taken longer than anticipated and has lagged behind the sales organization we put in place, and we have reached the point where our current sales and provisioning expense structure has outpaced our current POTS network deployment. Therefore,
we have already begun to put measures in place to correct it."
As a result, Mpower now projects the following results for the balance of the year:
|
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Third Quarter 2000
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Fourth Quarter 2000
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Net Line Adds
Revenue
EBITDA*
Cap Ex
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33,000-35,000
$38-39 million
$(53)-(58) million
$125-135 million
|
44,000-48,000
$43-46 million
$(52)-(55) million
$90-105 million
|
|
* (earnings before interest, taxes, stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization)
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In addition, Mpower has announced a one-time charge of $12-13 million to recognize costs associated with network optimization, as well as a $6 million one-time gain associated with the settlement of switched access disputes.
"Without question, the speed of our network build-out has presented challenges. However, we remain absolutely resolute in our belief that the strategy we have put in place and the investments we have made to support it will result in longer-term value creation," concluded Huff.
Mpower Communications Revised Outlook Conference Call
Date:
Time:
Participants:
Conference Call Number:
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September 8, 2000
11:00 a.m. (Eastern Time)
Rolla P. Huff, President and Chief Executive Officer
Michael R. Daley, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Joseph M. Wetzel, President-Operations
Paul D. Celuch, President-Sales and Marketing
(888) 209-3913
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A replay of the conference call will be available from Friday, September 8, 2000 at 1:00 p.m. eastern through Friday, September 15, 2000 at 1:00 p.m. eastern by dialing (800) 633-8284. The reservation number for the replay is 16264205.
About Mpower Communications Corp.
Mpower Communications Corp. (Nasdaq: MPWR) is a facilities-based broadband communications provider offering a full range of data, telephony, Internet access and Web hosting services for small and medium-size business customers. The company is quickly expanding its industry-leading Voice over Symmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (VoSDSL) footprint and plans to serve the top 50 business markets in the country by mid 2001. Further information about the company can be found at
www.mpowercom.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release that state Mpower Communications and/or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements. Management wishes to caution the reader these forward-looking statements are not historical facts and are only estimates or predictions. Actual results may differ materially as a result of risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, projections of future sales, returns on invested assets, regulatory approval processes, market conditions and other risks detailed from time to time in Mpower's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
