Telecom Ramblings

Competitive service provider CBeyond (NASDAQ:CBEY - chart, news) released its Q4 and full year 2009 financials today.  Q4 Revenues of $107.7 were up sequentially but somewhat weaker than expected due to lower ARPU levels of $727, down from $744 in the prior quarter.  However, revenues have never really been the company’s weak spot, and they made up for it with strong Q4 EBITDA of $19M and earnings per share of $0.03, up from $15.3M and -$0.01 in the prior quarter and ahead of expectations.  Churn rose slightly to 1.5%.

Unlike so many nowadays in this sector, CBeyond provided full year guidance for 2010 of:

• Revenue up 10%-13%, or about $455-467M
• Adjusted EBITDA up 15%-20%, or about $73-76M
• Capital expenditures up 2%-7%, or about $63-66M

EBITDA margins therefore appear ready to rise from 15% in 2009 to the 16% range in 2010.  There’s still more room for improvement there of course, but investors will surely welcome the higher EBITDA levels.  They will also welcome a return to higher ARPU levels of course.

CBeyond also announced that its next expansion market will be Boston, where they expect to open for business in the summer.