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EarthLink, Inc.- DSL Service - Category Main Page
1375
Peachtree St.
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
(404) 815-0770
www.earthlink.net
Sales
$1.4
billion
Business Description
EarthLink, Inc. ("EarthLink," "we," "us" or "our") is a leading Internet
service provider ("ISP"), providing nationwide Internet access and related
value-added services to its individual and business customers. Our primary
service offerings are narrowband, broadband or high-speed, and wireless
Internet access services; web hosting; and advertising and related services.
We provide our broad range of services to more than five million paying
customers through a nationwide network of dial-up points of presence ("POPs"),
a nationwide broadband footprint and wireless technologies. We have grown
our customer base organically through traditional marketing channels such as
direct marketing; media advertising; alliances with strategic partners and
original equipment manufacturers; retail outlets; and word of mouth and
referral marketing. We have also grown our customer base through
acquisitions of businesses and subscriber bases.
Service Offerings
Our primary service offerings include narrowband Internet access, including
premium and value-priced dial-up access over traditional telephone lines and
wireless access through a variety of handheld and laptop devices; high-speed
or broadband access via DSL, cable modem, satellite and dedicated circuits;
web hosting; and advertising and related marketing services. We derive
substantially all revenues from services and related fees, and such amounts
represented more than 97% of total revenues for the year ended December 31,
2003. The remaining revenues relate to sales of equipment and devices used
by our customers to access our services.
Narrowband access
Narrowband access revenues consist of monthly fees charged to customers for
dial-up and wireless Internet access; installation fees; early termination
fees; equipment revenues associated with selling personal computers,
handheld devices and other Internet access devices; and fees charged for the
shipping and handling of the devices and other equipment. We had
approximately 4.0 million narrowband subscribers at December 31, 2003.
Narrowband access revenues were $965.0 million, or 69% of total revenues,
for the year ended December 31, 2003.
We anticipate value-priced narrowband access to contribute significantly to
future subscriber and revenue growth; however, we expect modest declines in
our premium-priced narrowband subscriber base and revenues. We also
anticipate continued differentiation of narrowband access and related
services in pricing and service offerings designed to meet the unique needs
of customers.
Broadband access
Broadband access revenues consist of monthly fees charged for high-speed,
high-capacity access services including DSL, cable, satellite and dedicated
circuit services; installation fees; early termination fees; reactivation
fees; shipping and handling fees; and proceeds from the sale of modems and
other access devices to our subscribers. We had approximately 1.1 million
broadband subscribers at December 31, 2003. For the year ended December 31,
2003, broadband access revenues were $361.1 million, or 26% of total
revenues.
We expect broadband access to contribute significantly to future subscriber
and revenue growth as the market for broadband services continues to
increase and as we continue our efforts to expand our broadband footprint
and the variety of access methods we use to deliver broadband services.
Web hosting
We lease server space and provide web hosting services to companies and
individuals wishing to have an Internet or electronic commerce presence. For
the year ended December 31, 2003, web hosting revenues were $49.9 million,
or 3% of total revenues. We had approximately 161,000 web hosting accounts
at December 31, 2003.
Content, commerce and advertising
We generate content, commerce and advertising revenues by leveraging the
value of our customer base and user traffic; through paid placements for
searches, powered by the Google™ search engine; fees generated through
revenue sharing arrangements with online partners accessed through our
properties; commissions received from partners for the sale of partners'
services to our subscribers; and sales of advertising on our various online
properties, such as the Personal Start Page
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EarthLink
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