CenturyLink 2012 Annual Report Download - page 6

Data Hosting
We have investedaggressively since 2010 in
deployingFTTT in our service areas, in order to
capture growing revenues from wirelessdata
transport demand. By strategically routing
these deployments, we also extendour fiber
network to additionalpotential business
CUSTOMERS 7E COMPLETED  lBER BUILDS TO
cell towers in 2012, bringingthe totalto more
than 14,700 towers, andwe expect to build to
ANOTHER  TO  TOWERS IN  !S WE
finish the migration from traditional copper-
based connections to fiber-based connections,
we believe ourFTTT investments will have
a positive, long-term impact on revenues.
With the acquisition of Savvisin 2011, we
began investing in managed hosting andcloud
services.In 2012we continued to invest in
data hosting andmanaged servicescapabili-
ties that will enable us to provide complex
end-to-end IT solutions andmaximizethe
value of our network. We ended 2012 with
 DATA CENTERS AND  MILLION SELLABLE SQUARE
feet in North America, Europe and Asia.
We introduced 100Gbps network connectivity
service in Singapore andLondon. We
expanded ourcapabilities in cloud computing,
applicationsmanagement and otherservices
PRISM™TV
_4
while maintaining our reputation for excel-
lence.In 2012, Savviswas recognized by
Gartner, Inc.as a leader in the Magic Quadrant
forCloud Infrastructureas aService andthe
Magic Quadrant forManaged Hosting.
Achievingsynergies
We made excellent progresstoward achieving
operatingexpense synergies from the integra-
tion of Qwest into CenturyLinkoperations and
systems. In 2012, we increased our total
annualized operating expense synergytarget
TO  MILLION FROM  MILLION 7E ACHIEVED
ahead of schedule, our revised2012 synergy
targetof $480 million, which we had increased
FROM  MILLION 4HIS IS IN ADDITION TO THE
 MILLION IN COST SAVINGS WE HAVE ACHIEVED
from the 2009 Embarqacquisition.
From a systems perspective, we converted
financial andhumanresources systems to a
single platform. We also continued to make
significant progressin the area of network
integration. We significantly increased backbone
capacity anddeployedultra-long haul
equipmentto facilitatenetwork consolidation
andreduce costs.
ExpandingLinks b
Consumer
s 7E ADDED NEARLY  HIGH
speed Internet(HSI)subscribers
in 2012, a year that saw stagnant
HSI growth for the industry
as a whole.
s 7E EXPANDED OUR lBERTOTHE
node infrastructurein 2012
by approximately 1 million new
livingunits, passingmore than
7.1million homesby yearend.
s 7E ADDED  NEW
subscribers to ourPrism™TV
entertainment service,ending
THE YEAR WITH  SUBSCRIBERS
$2.9 BILLION
“We generated strong cash flows that enabled us to invest
$2.9 billion in our business in 2012 while returning more than
$1.8 billion to shareholders through dividend payments.”