US LEC set a company record for revenues in the first quarter with sales of $85.2 million, the company reported Tuesday.

US LEC (Nasdaq: CLEC) said its revenues were up nearly $6 million from the fourth quarter of last year and were a 17 percent improvement over the same quarter a year ago.

End-customer revenues, as opposed to revenues from other telephone carriers for network usage, were $66.8 million, an increase of nearly 40 percent.

US LEC now has more than 18,000 business-class customers, an increase of 66 percent over last year.

The company still reported a loss of $7.2 million, or 24 cents a share. It lost $8.5 million in the same quarter in 2003.

US LEC: www.uslec.com