Bell mopped up customers switching from Rogers in Q3

BCE Inc. reported what it said were record subscriber additions in the third quarter of 2022, according to executives speaking to analysts on an earnings call Thursday morning. Bell CEO Mirko Bibic told analysts the gains were partially – though not entirely – driven by the company seeking to capitalize on the fallout from Rogers Communications Inc.'s network outage on July 8. "I wouldn't interpret the record results as singularly driven by a competitor's network outage in early July," Bibic told analysts, saying that the momentum on subscriber additions has been there for a while. Bibic said that the additions were driven by a combination of increased immigration into the country, increased customer penetration, and customers switching over from Rogers. "There's certainly growth there because of immigration, we are doing well on switchers, and there is still room to grow in the industry in terms of device penetration" in Canada compared with other countries. Bell reported an overall revenue increase of 3.2 per cent for the third quarter, up to $6.02 billion from $5.84 billion this time last year. In its report to shareholders, the company said the increase was "mainly due to strong wireless and Internet performance, partly offset by continued erosion in voice, and satellite TV revenues and lower business solutions services revenue." Wireless revenues climbed 7.4 per cent, up to $2.47 billion from $2.3 billion, while wireline revenues climbed a single per cent from $3.05 billion compared to $3.02 billion last third quarter. Wireless average revenue per user (ARPU) grew 2.2 per cent, up to $60.79 from $59.47 last year. The company posted a 5.2 per cent drop in net earnings, down to $771 million in the quarter from $813 million a year previously. The company also posted strong additions, adding a total of 224,343 net wireless subscribers, a 64.4 per cent jump from the 136,464 wireless subscribers the company added in the third quarter of 2021. Bell also reported adding 49,044 mobile connected devices, a 48.5 per cent leap from the 33,035 subscribers the company added this time last year. On the wireline side, the company added 89,652 home internet subscribers, a 36.3 per cent increase from the 65,779 they added in the equivalent quarter of 2021, as well as 10,853 new television subscribers, a 3.2 per cent increase from the 10,521 added a year ago. The company now has a total of 9,826,465 mobile subscribers, 2,347,371 mobile device subscribers, 4,067,039 home internet subscribers, and 2,735,000 home television subscribers. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by .Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Bell mopped up customers switching from Rogers in Q3

Broadcast | November 3, 2022

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Bell mopped up customers switching from Rogers in Q3

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