EarthLink's earnings reveal that the ISP is banking on the success of its metro-WiFi initiatives. While EarthLink is still profitable, dial-up revenue dropped 18 percent from the same period last year, broadband revenue increased only 6 percent and earnings-per-share dropped nearly 50 percent. It needs these WiFi networks to combat the shrinking revenue in dial-up and broadband. But analysts don't expect to see substantial revenue from WiFi subscribers until 2007. In the meantime, its cash-cow, dial-up revenue, which was $743 million in 2005, keeps dropping 17 percent to 18 percent a year.
For more information about EarthLink's Q1 results:
- take a look at this article from Business 2.0
- read this report from WNN Wi-Fi Net News