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Segment Information
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2016
Segment Reporting [Abstract]  
Segment Information
Segment Information
Segment Data
We are organized into operating segments based on customer type, business and consumer. These operating segments are our two reportable segments in our consolidated financial statements:
Business Segment. Consists generally of providing strategic, legacy and data integration products and services to small, medium and enterprise business, wholesale and governmental customers, including other communication providers. Our strategic products and services offered to these customers include our MPLS, Ethernet, colocation, hosting (including cloud hosting and managed hosting), broadband, VoIP, information technology and other ancillary services. Our legacy services offered to these customers primarily include local and long-distance voice, including the sale of unbundled network elements ("UNEs"), which allow our wholesale customers to use all or part of our network to provide voice and data services to their customers, private line (including special access), switched access and other ancillary services. Our data integration offerings include the sale of telecommunications equipment located on customers' premises and related products and professional services, all of which are described further below under the heading "Product and Service Categories"; and
Consumer Segment. Consists generally of providing strategic and legacy products and services to residential customers. Our strategic products and services offered to these customers include our broadband, video (including our Prism TV services) and other ancillary services. Our legacy services offered to these customers include local and long-distance voice and other ancillary services.
The results of our business and consumer segments are summarized below:
 
Three Months Ended June 30,
 
Six Months Ended June 30,
 
2016
 
2015
 
2016

2015
 
(Dollars in millions)
Total segment revenues
$
4,091

 
4,161

 
8,184

 
8,355

Total segment expenses
2,141

 
2,140

 
4,192

 
4,211

Total segment income
$
1,950

 
2,021

 
3,992

 
4,144

Total margin percentage
48
%
 
49
%
 
49
%
 
50
%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Business segment:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Revenues
$
2,597

 
2,658

 
5,201

 
5,355

Expenses
1,487

 
1,504

 
2,914

 
2,967

Income
$
1,110

 
1,154

 
2,287

 
2,388

Margin percentage
43
%
 
43
%
 
44
%
 
45
%
Consumer segment:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Revenues
$
1,494

 
1,503

 
2,983

 
3,000

Expenses
654

 
636

 
1,278

 
1,244

Income
$
840

 
867

 
1,705

 
1,756

Margin percentage
56
%
 
58
%
 
57
%
 
59
%



Changes in Segment Reporting
We continually review, evaluate and refine our expense allocations to better reflect how we view and manage our operations, and as a result, during the first half of 2016, we implemented several changes with respect to the assignment of certain expenses to our reportable segments. We have recast our previously-reported segment results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015, to conform to the current presentation. The nature of the most significant changes to segment expenses are as follows:
Certain marketing and advertising expenses were reassigned from the business segment to the consumer segment;
Certain service delivery costs were reassigned from the consumer segment to the business segment;
Centralized human resources training costs were reassigned from the business and consumer segments to corporate overhead; and
Marketing direct mail costs and certain printing expenses were reassigned from corporate overhead to the business and consumer segments.
For the three months ended June 30, 2015, the segment expense recast resulted in an increase in consumer expenses of $19 million and a decrease in business expenses of $21 million. For the six months ended June 30, 2015, the segment expense recast resulted in an increase in consumer expenses of $38 million and a decrease in business expenses of $42 million.
Product and Service Categories
From time to time, we may change the categorization of our products and services. During the second quarter of 2016, we determined that because of declines due to customer migration to other strategic products and services, certain of our business low-bandwidth data services, specifically our private line (including special access) services in our business segment, are now more closely aligned with our legacy services than with our strategic services. As a result, we now reflect these operating revenues as legacy services, and we have reclassified certain prior period amounts to conform to this change. The revision resulted in a reduction of revenue from strategic services and a corresponding increase in revenue from legacy services of $401 million and $818 million (net of $2 million and $4 million of deferred revenue included in other business legacy services) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015, respectively. In addition, our business broadband services remain a strategic service and are now included in our other business strategic services.
We now categorize our products, services and revenues among the following four categories:
Strategic services, which include primarily broadband, MPLS (which is a data networking technology that can deliver the quality of service required to support real-time voice and video), Ethernet, colocation, hosting (including cloud hosting and managed hosting), video (including our facilities-based video services, which we now offer in 16 markets), VoIP, information technology and other ancillary services;
Legacy services, which include primarily local and long-distance voice services, including the sale of UNEs, private line (including special access), Integrated Services Digital Network ("ISDN") (which use regular telephone lines to support voice, video and data applications), switched access and other ancillary services;
Data integration, which includes the sale of telecommunications equipment located on customers' premises and related products and professional services, such as network management, installation and maintenance of data equipment and building of proprietary fiber-optic broadband networks for our governmental and business customers; and
Other operating revenues, which consist primarily of CAF support payments, USF support payments and USF surcharges. We receive federal support payments from both CAF Phase 1 and CAF Phase 2 programs, and support payments from both federal and state USF programs. These support payments are government subsidies designed to reimburse us for various costs related to certain telecommunications services, including the costs of deploying, maintaining and operating voice and broadband infrastructure in high-cost rural areas where we are not able to fully recover our costs from our customers. USF surcharges are the amounts we collect based on specific items we list on our customers' invoices to fund the FCC's universal service programs. We also generate other operating revenues from the leasing and subleasing of space in our office buildings, warehouses and other properties. Because we centrally manage the activities that generate these other operating revenues, these revenues are not included in our segment revenues.


Our operating revenue detail for our products and services consisted of the following categories:
 
Three Months Ended June 30,
 
Six Months Ended June 30,
 
2016
 
2015
 
2016
 
2015
 
(Dollars in millions)
Strategic services
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Business high-bandwidth data services (1)
$
753

 
697

 
1,491

 
1,384

Business hosting services (2)
305

 
319

 
612

 
637

Other business strategic services (3)
172

 
155

 
342

 
315

Consumer broadband services (4)
682

 
652

 
1,349

 
1,287

Other consumer strategic services (5)
118

 
106

 
225

 
209

Total strategic services revenues
2,030

 
1,929

 
4,019

 
3,832

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Legacy services
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Business voice services (6)
611

 
648

 
1,233

 
1,318

Business low-bandwidth data services (7)
352

 
403

 
718

 
822

Other business legacy services (8)
281

 
293

 
567

 
597

Consumer voice services (6)
615

 
675

 
1,249

 
1,363

Other consumer legacy services (9)
79

 
70

 
159

 
140

Total legacy services revenues
1,938

 
2,089

 
3,926

 
4,240

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Data integration
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Business data integration
123

 
143

 
238

 
282

  Consumer data integration

 

 
1

 
1

Total data integration revenues
123

 
143

 
239

 
283

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Other revenues
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  High-cost support revenue (10)
173

 
132

 
347

 
266

  Other revenue (11)
134

 
126

 
268

 
249

Total other revenues
307

 
258

 
615

 
515

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total revenues
$
4,398

 
4,419

 
8,799

 
8,870

______________________________________________________________________ 
(1)
Includes MPLS and Ethernet revenue
(2)
Includes colocation, hosting (including cloud hosting and managed hosting) and hosting area network revenue
(3)
Includes primarily broadband, VoIP, video and IT services revenue
(4)
Includes broadband and related services revenue
(5)
Includes video and other revenue
(6)
Includes local and long-distance voice revenue
(7)
Includes private line (including special access) revenue
(8)
Includes UNEs, public access, switched access and other ancillary revenue
(9)
Includes other ancillary revenue
(10)
Includes CAF Phase 1, CAF Phase 2 and federal and state USF support revenue
(11)
Includes USF surcharges


We recognize revenues in our consolidated statements of operations for certain USF surcharges and transaction taxes that we bill to our customers. Our consolidated statements of operations also reflect the related expense for the amounts we remit to the government agencies. The total amount of such surcharges and transaction taxes that we included in revenues aggregated approximately $144 million and $139 million for the three months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively, and approximately $291 million and $274 million for the six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. These USF surcharges, where we record revenue, are included in "other" operating revenues and these transaction taxes are included in "legacy services" revenues. We also act as a collection agent for certain other USF and transaction taxes that we are required by government agencies to bill our customers, for which we do not record any revenue or expense because we only act as a pass-through agent.
Allocations of Revenues and Expenses
Our segment revenues include all revenues from our strategic, legacy and data integration operations as described in more detail above. Segment revenues are based upon each customer's classification as either business or consumer. We report our segment revenues based upon all services provided to that segment's customers. Our segment expenses for our two reportable segments include specific expenses incurred as a direct result of providing services and products to segment customers, along with selling, general and administrative expenses that are (i) directly associated with specific segment customers or activities and (ii) allocated expenses, which include network expenses, facilities expenses and other expenses such as fleet and real estate expenses. We do not assign depreciation and amortization expense or impairments to our segments, as the related assets and capital expenditures are centrally managed and are not monitored by or reported to the chief operating decision maker ("CODM") by segment. Generally speaking, severance expenses, restructuring expenses and certain centrally managed administrative functions (such as finance, information technology, legal and human resources) are not assigned to our segments. Interest expense is also excluded from segment results because we manage our financing on a consolidated basis and have not allocated assets or debt to specific segments. Other income and expense items are not monitored as a part of our segment operations and are therefore excluded from our segment results.
The following table reconciles segment income to net income:
 
Three Months Ended June 30,
 
Six Months Ended June 30,
 
2016
 
2015
 
2016
 
2015
 
(Dollars in millions)
Total segment income
$
1,950

 
2,021

 
3,992

 
4,144

Other operating revenues
307

 
258

 
615

 
515

Depreciation and amortization
(987
)
 
(1,048
)
 
(1,963
)
 
(2,088
)
Other unassigned operating expenses
(620
)
 
(682
)
 
(1,300
)
 
(1,373
)
Interest expense and other income, net
(333
)
 
(315
)
 
(647
)
 
(641
)
Income tax expense
(121
)
 
(91
)
 
(265
)
 
(222
)
Net income
$
196

 
143

 
432

 
335


We do not have any single customer that provides more than 10% of our total consolidated operating revenues. Substantially all of our consolidated revenues come from customers located in the United States.