Level 3 Communications Inc. eked out a modest third-quarter profit, though the bottom line was hit by charge related to its Venezuelan subsidiary.

The Broomfield, Colo., telecommunications-services provider had reported six straight quarters of profits before posting a loss in July for its second quarter on charges related to its efforts to improve its balance sheet.

The company on Wednesday raised the lower end of its 2015 outlook for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization growth by one percentage point and now expects an increase of between to 15% and 17%.

Overall, Level 3 reported a profit of $1 million, or break-even on a per-share basis, down sharply from $85 million, or 35 cents a share, a year earlier. The latest period included a charge of $171 million, or 48 cents a share, for an accounting change related to its Venezuela unit that the company said won't affect the subsidiary's operations. Revenue increased 27% to $2.06 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of 45 cents and revenue of $2.06 billion.

Companies such as Level 3 are taking advantage of rising demand for Internet bandwidth from several sectors, including media companies looking to distribute video over the Internet, big corporations that are increasingly reliant on computer services delivered over the Web and cellphone companies that are investing in links to get traffic off the airwaves and into fiber as quickly as possible to speed service.

The soaring demand has spurred a consolidation spree among the carriers that own fiber-optic cables and data centers, the building blocks of the Web.

The company has used its acquisition of TW Telecom to pursue a wider range of business customers. Level 3 said in April that it could still pursue other companies on an opportunistic basis.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 28, 2015 08:55 ET (12:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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