Lumos sees obtains in data

Lumos Networks Corp. plans to expand a key motor of its booming data communications business by doubling the number of its fiber connections to cell sites this year.

The Waynesboro-based telephone company said revenue from its wholesale data business during the first quarter jumped 29 percent from the year before.

"Our enterprise data and wholesale product lines remain the catalyst for revenue growth," said newly named CEO Timothy Biltz. He said he expects particularly strong growth in the second half of the year.

Biltz hopes to transform Lumos, which traces its roots back more than a century, when it was Waynesboro's locally owned telephone company, into a fiber optic-based network for high-speed data communications.

Lumos' gains in the data business helped offset a 12 percent drop in its traditional telephone business' first quarter revenue.

Overall, the company reported net income for the quarter rose 5 percent from last year's level to $5.3 million, or 25 cents a share, boosted in large part by a 20 percent decline in interest expense. Revenue declined 2 percent to $51.4 million.

May 6, 2012

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