Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) has posted a 4.6% rise in annual revenues to CAD22.719 billion (USD18.060 billion) for 2017, whilst the group's twelve-month EBITDA climbed 4.4% to CAD9.178 billion. CAPEX in FY 2017 was 7.0% lower than in 2016, at CAD4.034 billion, whilst BCE's annual net profit attributable to shareholders reached CAD2.786 billion, down 3.7% year-on-year.
BCE added a total of 1.26 million new wireless, broadband and TV subscribers in FY 2017 (including the acquisition of Manitoba's MTS), with 235,000 subscriptions added in the fourth quarter. The addition of 175,000 net post-paid mobile subscribers in Q4 helped drive its consolidated mobile customer total to 9.17 million at 31 December 2017, up 8.2% y-o-y. BCE's fixed broadband subscriber total stood at 3.79 million (including around a million fibre-to-the-home [FTTH]) at end-2017, up 9.0% in twelve months, with 27,000 net new high speed internet customers added in Q4.
Rival Canadian full-service operator Telus also reported a rise in FY 2017 revenues, up 3.9% to CAD13.304 billion. Telus' consolidated FY17 EBITDA climbed by 4.8% to CAD4.891 billion, whilst the group's annual net profit attributable to shareholders jumped by 19.4% to CAD1.460 billion.
Telus' total customer connections (broadband, fixed telephony, wireless and TV) grew by 3.0% in January-December 2017 to 13.05 million. Telus signed up a net 121,000 post-paid mobile users in Q4 2017, and its total mobile base reached 8.911 million at 31 December, up 3.8% y-o-y. Telus' fixed broadband subscriber base grew 5.3% in the year, to 1.74 million.