CRTC must implement a reasonable test for FTTP rates: Péladeau

The CRTC “must implement a reasonable test” for fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) rates to prevent situations where providers offer prices significantly below approved wholesale rates, according to Quebecor Inc.’s CEO. Pierre Karl Péladeau made the comments Thursday during the company’s first quarter earnings call for three months ending March 31. Quebecor closed the deal to acquire Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile last month for $2.85 billion while Shaw was officially acquired by Rogers Communications Inc. Péladeau said that it “is essential” that the incumbents be required to offer third-party internet access (TPIA) services through aggregated FTTP facilities so it can “truly” become a fourth national player. Péladeau then criticized BCE Inc. for selling its gigabit services way below the $122 it charges third parties for FTTP access in Ontario. “For the last … four or five months now Bell has been selling a gig at $60. So either the $122 price is highly inflated or they are selling the gig at a loss,” he said. Péladeau added that he was confident the commission would come to the same conclusion. “The message is loud and clear from the leadership of the CRTC… they know about all those tactics being used by the incumbents. They know that the roaming prices in Canada don’t make sense and therefore they will review this quickly,” Péladeau said. Quebecor’s net income dropped by 3.1 per cent year-over-year going from $117.1 million in Q1 2022 to $113.5 million this quarter. Revenue for the quarter increased by 2.8 percent from the same quarter last year. Quebecor raked in almost $1.12 billion compared to $1.09 billion. Internet revenue jumped by 5.4 per cent since Q1 2022 from $298.6 million to $314.7 million. Mobile telephony revenue increased 7.4 per cent to $201.1 million while television revenue increased by 1.1 per cent to $199.4 million. Quebecor’s total telecommunications revenue increased by 2.4 per cent going from $903.4 million to $925 million. Quebecor has opted to exclude subscribers to over-the-top video services and customers of third-party internet access providers from its revenue generating units (RGUs). Quebecor added 4,100 revenue-generating units this quarter for a total of 5.5 million. Quebecor brought in 8,800 new internet RGUs this quarter and is just shy of 1.7 million customers. Mobile subscribers increased by 26,200 additions for a total of 1.7 million RGUs. That is almost 2,000 more additions than Quebecor brought in this time last year. Losses in television RGUs have slightly slowed down. In Q1 2022 Quebecor lost 12,200 customers in the segment, whereas this year it lost 10,500. Quebecor now has less than 1.39 million television customers. The company’s total average revenue per user (ARPU) increased but under $1 from $46.40 to $47.35. Mobile ARPU increased by $0.21 since this time last year to $38.91. Earlier in the week, Quebecor subsidiary TVA Group Inc. released its quarterly results. Revenue dropped by 5.8 per cent, or $8.4 million, to $136.1 million. Its net loss attributable to shareholders was $23.5 million compared with a net loss of $13.0 million for the same quarter of 2022. In February Quebecor announced it was cutting 240 jobs, of which 140 were being cut from Groupe TVA. "First quarter results continued to be impacted by declining profitability across all our segments. Even with the implementation of our restructuring plan… our cost-reduction measures, while not yet at their full potential during the period, were not sufficient to offset the impact of the challenges faced by the various industries in which we operate," Péladeau stated earlier this week in a press release. During the quarterly call the CEO also called on the government to “immediately withdraw advertising” from all CBC/Radio-Canada platforms to “put an end to unfair competition and race for ratings.” “This situation should not be true for CBC as a whole, with less than eight per cent market share. But it's certainly the case for Radio-Canada, which competes directly and actively with TVA and reaches a very significant 21 per cent market share,” he said. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca.

CRTC must implement a reasonable test for FTTP rates: Péladeau

News | May 11, 2023

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CRTC must implement a reasonable test for FTTP rates: Péladeau

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