CenturyLink Goes East, Expands Managed Hosting to China

Telecommunication service provider CenturyLink, Inc. CTL has announced the expansion of its global managed hosting services in China, fostering business for its Asia-Pacific region. The service is mainly dedicated toward multinational corporations in China.

We believe CenturyLink's expansion beyond the home turf should prove significant in strengthening its global presence while also offering competitive advantage against strong peers like Telephone & Data Systems Inc. TDS. 

CenturyLink has redesigned its operating segments to strengthen its grip over the enterprise market and remain fully committed to wholesale, consumer and hosting customers. The company, over the last few years, has been witnessing a slower rate of revenue declines. In 2013, the company's core revenue trend recorded a narrower decline of 1.3% compared to 2.3% in 2012. In 2014, the company expects this trend to continue, arresting core revenue decline from a negative 1.2% to flat, buoyed by strategic revenues, improvement in broadband and Prism TV sales as well as high bandwidth data and hosting services.

CenturyLink is expected to achieve its growth target on synergies from long-standing ties with clients, bundled integrated services, launch of new and attractive services, consistent technology upgrades, infrastructure enhancement, better usage of networks and profitable collaborations. CenturyLink is also benefiting from its continuous investments in product portfolio, which places it as an integrated end-to-end solution provider to various businesses. CenturyLink's Prism TV service is performing well and is expected to compensate for the revenue loss due to reduction of single-play voice customers. CenturyLink also remains committed to its ambition of making Prism TV service (available to 200,000 customers) available in several new markets and adding 300,000 subscribers for the service in 2014.

Other Stocks      

West Corporation WSTC and Single Touch Systems Inc. (SITO) are two other stocks that warrant a look in this sector.