Wireless continues to be the engine behind the growth of Telus Corp.
The Vancouver-based company said Friday that its third quarter revenue increased six per cent to $2.8 billion, driven by a seven per cent increase in wireless revenue. Profit for the quarter was $351 million.
Wireless earnings before deductions (EBITDA) was up 12 per cent thanks to a 23 per cent leap in data revenue from smart phones.
By comparison wireline revenue – which includes phone, Internet and IPTV was up four per cent. Of that total, however, data revenue was up 14 per cent.
“Our long-standing strategy to invest in broadband wireless and wireline data technology, services and applications within our core businesses coupled with a focus on putting customers first has resulted in strong quarterly operational and financial growth,” CEO Darren Entwistle said in a statement.
“We attracted 116,000 new postpaid wireless customers, 42,000 new TV customers, and 26,000 new high-speed Internet customers and encouragingly we saw those customers continuing to stay with us longer, as evidenced by our industry leading 1.44 per cent wireless churn rate. This strong performance translated this quarter into double-digit data revenue growth, eight per cent earnings per share growth and 23 per cent free cash flow growth.”
However, 5,000 lower average revenue wireless subscribers left, making total net new additions for the quarter 110,000. That 116,000 postpaid net additions was actually down 13 per cent from the same period a year ago because this year subscribers were holding back until the September launch of Apple’s iPhone 5.
Telus now has 7.56 million wireless subscribers.
Telus sells wireless and business services across the country, but its home Internet and IPTV business is concentrated in Alberta and British Columbia where it is the incumbent telephone carrier.
The company said blended average revenue per user (ARPU) of wireless subscribers increased slightly to $61.42. The blend is a combination of voice and data revenue. Breaking it up shows that average voice revenue declined 6.8 per cent, while average data per user went up 17 per cent.
