Telus revenue, profit up 4 per cent each

Telus Corp. reported revenue of $3.36 billion, up four per cent from the same quarter last year, in its third-quarter results released Thursday, while net income also increased 4.2 per cent to $370 million over that time. Wireless revenue saw a 6.1 per cent increase over last year’s Q3 to $1.95 billion, whereas wireline stayed relatively flat with one per cent increase to $1.48 billion, Telus said in the results for the three-month period ended Sept. 30. Net new wireless subscribers also continued to grow with 44,000 more over 2016’s third quarter, a net 124,000 new pre- and postpaid wireless customers, with a total wireless customer base of 8.8 million. In the wireline side of the business, net television and high speed internet subscriber counts came in at 9,000 and 19,000, respectively. But net total wireline subscriptions for Q3 2017 only ended up at 8,000 customers because of 20,000 fewer landline subscriptions. In total, Telus had 1.7 million internet subscribers, 1.1 million TV subscribers, and 1.3 million landline customers. Blended wireless average revenue per user (ARPU) grew three per cent. ARPU growth was associated with customers picking “higher-rate plans, including Premium Plus, and increased data consumption, continued postpaid subscriber growth, including smartphone adoption and subscribers we acquired from MTS, and higher roaming revenues,” according to the results press release. In the quarterly results, Telus explained that about 85,000 new subscribers had been migrated from its involvement in the acquisition of Manitoba Telecom Services inc. by BCE inc. Continuing the theme from the previous quarter, Telus’ postpaid customer churn — while not the 0.79 per cent from last quarter — was still low at 0.86 per cent. “Our team is achieving leading customer loyalty and high quality smartphone loading despite the dynamic nature of the wireless market,” said president and CEO Darren Entwistle. Asked about the latest product from Apple Inc., Entwistle did not sound concerned about the success of the iPhone X. “Demand currently exceeds supply, which is a good thing for Telus,” he said. Entwistle also pointed out that this coming season will have the widest selection of iPhones ever available, and each model of the premium smartphone improves retention rates and increases ARPU. Barclays’ analyst Philip Huang wrote that Telus exceeded expectations in many categories, noting that the postpaid net adds of 115,000 exceeded his estimates of 93,000, postpaid churn of 0.86% beat his estimate of 0.90% and ARPU of $68.67 was higher than the $68.50 he predicted. “We believe the strong ARPU and churn reflect an improving subscriber mix with higher-rate plans and roaming revenues,” wrote Huang in his analyst note.

Telus revenue, profit up 4 per cent each

Brief | November 9, 2017

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Telus revenue, profit up 4 per cent each

Brief | November 9, 2017

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