BCE, Bell’s parent company, announced its Q1 2016 results today, revealing that the company increased its wireless revenues and also saw a jump in subscribers.
According to the report, Bell’s wireless earnings for the past three months saw service revenues increase by 5.3 percent to $1.6 billion, up from $1.5 billion the same period last year. However, a massive decline in “product revenues” as it dropped 18.1 percent to $104 million “due to intensely competitive promotional handset pricing as well as fewer customer upgrades and postpaid gross additions.”
In total Bell wireless operating revenues surged by 3.4 percent to almost a whopping $1.7 billion, up from $1,637 million last year.
Bell’s total postpaid customers totalled 7,401,221 at the end of the quarter, which is an increase of 3.6 percent, but postpaid net subscriber additions were only 25,805 because of “reduced market activity.” Total Bell wireless subscribers base is now at 8,235,963.
Blended Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) increased 3.6 percent to $63.02. Bell noted this was “driven by a higher percentage of customers on 2-year contracts, increased data usage on our leading 4G LTE networks, and a greater mix of smartphone postpaid customers.”
Postpaid subscribers with smartphones on Bell’s network now make up for 82 percent of users, up from 77 percent at the end of Q1 2015. Another interesting stat that was revealed was the adoption of postpaid customers on its LTE network, which jumped by 21 percent to reach 73 percent.
Bell’s 4G LTE network now covers 96 percent of the Canadian population, while it’s newly unveiled LTE-Advanced network is now available to 49 percent of Canadians and will expand its coverage to 75 percent by the end of 2016.
In the report, George Cope, Bell’s CEO stated, “The Bell strategy of investment in the most advanced networks and product innovations, combined with a focus on operational efficiency at every level, is clearly delivering the better broadband customer experience. The Bell team’s strong operational execution, focus on growing broadband usage and effective cost management across our wireless, wireline and media segments has now delivered 42 consecutive quarters of uninterrupted year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth.”
[source]BCE[/source]
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