UPDATE 2-Cogent Communications Q3 rev misses Street, shares down

* Q3 loss $0.07/shr vs est loss of $0.08/shr

* Q3 services revenue up 10.3 pct, miss est

* Shares down as much as 15 pct (Recasts; adds details, analyst comment, updates share movement)

By Shrutika Verma

BANGALORE, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Internet services provider Cogent Communications Group Inc (CCOI.O) posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss but failed to meet the market view on sales, sending its shares down as much as 15 percent.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 20.1 percent to $17 million, falling short of analyst expectations.

"They missed on both revenue and EBITDA, their guidance looks to be difficult to achieve this year in terms of top-line growth of 10 to 20 percent," Wells Fargo Securities analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said, however, adding that Cogent's outlook is "aggressive."

"ARPU (average revenue per user) came in less than what we were expecting because we have seen a greater take rate of lower price plans... and customer additions were less than expected," she said.

Third-quarter total customer connections increased 23.8 percent to 20,988 from a year earlier, slower than the 26 percent rise the company had reported in its second quarter.

"We are particularly concerned about the weaker-than-expected customer net additions, suggesting a sharp slowdown in customer wins and perhaps market share loss," J.P. Morgan analyst Mike McCormack said in a note.

"On-net average revenue per user fell 14.1 percent from a year ago, worse than our 12.7 percent estimate, though a slight improvement from the 16.6 percent decline last quarter," he added.

The company's on-net service is provided to customers located in buildings physically connected to Cogent's network by its facilities, while off-net customers are located in buildings, which are connected to its network using other carriers' facilities and services.

Third-quarter net loss was $3.3 million, or 7 cents per share, compared with $6.5 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier.

Services revenue rose 10.3 percent to $60.2 million.

Analysts expected a loss of 8 cents a share, excluding exceptional items, on revenue of $61.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company, which competes with larger rivals British Telecom (BT.L), AT&T Inc (T.N), Verizon (VZ.N) and Level 3 Communications Inc (LVLT.O), saw a sequential traffic growth of over 15 percent.

Shares of the Washington D.C.-based company were trading down 13 percent at $9.04 Monday afternoon on Nasdaq. They have gained about 60 percent of their value since the start of the year. (Reporting by Shrutika Verma in Bangalore; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)