Telus Corp, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, reported a 33 per cent jump in second-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by the combination of growth in its wireless and fixed-line businesses.
Telus said it signed up 78,000 net contract wireless subscribers, who typically pay more to use high-end smartphones. By comparison, BCE Inc’s Bell and Rogers Communications Inc signed up 66,186 and 38,000 customers, respectively, in the same period.
Vancouver-based Telus competes against cable company Shaw Communications Inc for television, phone and Internet customers in Western Canada, and against Rogers and Bell for wireless subscribers nationally.
Telus said its average wireless customer, excluding those acquired in a deal for budget operator Public Mobile, paid C$62.51 a month for service, compared with C$59.49 at Bell and C$59.18 at Rogers.
Telus added 23,000 TV customers and 15,000 Internet subscribers in the quarter, helping its landline unit post increased revenue despite an industrywide decline in voice telephony demand.
“Another strong wireless quarter,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose wrote in a note to clients. He added that Telus is the only major Canadian telco enjoying fixed-line revenue and earnings expansion.
Telus posted net income of C$381-million, or 62 Canadian cents a share, compared with C$286-million, or 44 cents a share, a year earlier.
Operating revenue rose 4.4 per cent to C$2.95-billion. Excluding restructuring costs, a long-term debt prepayment premium, and income tax-related adjustments, Telus earned 63 Canadian cents a share.
Analysts, on average, expected 58 Canadian cents a share on revenue of C$2.95-billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Thanks to the Globe and Mail for the article.