ADTRAN's Revenues Plunge in Q3

ADTRAN reported third-quarter revenue of $114.1 million, down 22.9% year-over-year, because of a "pause" in shipments to Telmex and a purchasing "slowdown" at Deutsche Telekom. Without these two tier ones weighing it down, the vendor's sales would have grown by one fifth.

The vendor reported a net loss of $46.1 million versus net income of $7.6 million for Q3 2018. Earnings per share was a loss of $0.96 per share compared to earnings per share, assuming dilution, of $0.16 for year-ago period. On a Non-GAAP basis, the company suffered a net loss of $2.8 million versus non-GAAP net income of $9.9 million 12 months earlier. Non-GAAP earnings per share was a loss of $0.06 per share compared to non-GAAP income per share, assuming dilution, of $0.21 in Q3 2018. (See ADTRAN Reports Q3 Earnings & Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend.)

Not counting the impact of the Latin American and European operators on revenue, ADTRAN's business grew 20%, Chairman and CEO Tom Stanton said in an earnings call today. That's because the company saw growing demand for its products and services -- especially its GPON fiber access business (up 38% over 12 months ago) and ONT products, as well as 10G PON and fiber-extension products, he said.

In addition to cutting costs, ADTRAN also saw a "slight increase" in sales of its more profitable new services offerings, added SVP and Chief Financial Officer Mike Foliano on the earnings call. In Q3, ended Sept. 30, Services & Support generated $20.07 million versus $19.29 million a year ago.

Customer profiles
Described by Stanton as a "tier one, Latin American customer," Telmex will continue buying products from ADTRAN, according to the CEO. However, there is very little insight into when the provider will place its orders, he said. That, in turn, prevents ADTRAN from correctly including these products -- and monies -- into its financials.

"In Latin America, there's a multi-tier project going on, and we expect that to continue," Stanton said. "There's variability of the ordering pattern and inventory levels. Where the visibility gets more difficult is in the timing of purchase orders. That doesn't change the trajectory of the order itself."

At DT, however, pressure from competitors and government regulators focused on fiber have put the German operator's Gfast- and VDSL-based plans back under consideration. In turn, that placed many of DT's plans -- including product orders -- on hold. One of those vendors was ADTRAN.

ADTRAN's decentralization strategy, which included efforts to broaden geographically and market-wise, have been working, Stanton said. Having established a relationship with NBN via sales of Gfast solutions for fiber-to-the-curb installs, the vendor now is part of the Australian wholesaler's FTTH set-ups, he said. And ADTRAN recently received permission to sell its CPEs to NBN, added Stanton.

CenturyLink is now ADTRAN's largest customer, underscoring the vendor's move to add MNOs as a focal point. The vendor also targets tier one and two providers, finding a lot of growth in the smaller operators, both in the US and UK, he said. Likewise, ADTRAN sees ongoing demand from regional operators, as well as coops, utilities and municipalities looking to deploy broadband for their own communities, Stanton said.

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— Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News. Follow us on Twitter or @alisoncdiana. Like what you read: Sign up for our weekly newsletter.