Telus sees strong quarterly results for subscribers, says smarter spectrum policies needed

According to Telus Corp. executive vice-president and chief operations officer, if there was smarter public policy on spectrum, the company could “actually deploy solutions” to remote and rural communities on a much faster basis as it looks to migrate off of copper and expand beyond its current footprint. Tony Geheran made the comments Friday when the Vancouver-based telecom reported its first quarter results for the three-month period ending March 31 and held an afternoon call with analysts. Geheran said Telus has been “very successful” at working with federal and provincial governments to put its capital to work with government subsidies. He said the company has seen a 100 per cent success rate over the last 1.5 years of achieving all of the subsidy allocations that it submitted a bid on. “Additionally, when we look at the opportunity to expand to adjacent areas, our existing fibre footprint, quite often with the population and population growth, we can see new opportunities that weren't present a few years ago that allow us to extend that fibre footprint,” he said. “And with the new technology of 5G fixed wireless we are able to look at effective alternate solutions – which I might add would be hastened if there was smarter public policy on spectrum.” The comments echo criticisms of spectrum policy Telus has made in the past. Telus is touting that the company saw some of its best first quarter results in regard to customer subscriptions with a “record first quarter” total customer net addition of 148,000, up by 3,000 since this time last year. This included mobile phone net additions of 46,000 which Telus claimed was "the best first quarter result since 2010." That accounts for a 48.4 per cent increase from the 31,000 subscribers this time last year. Telus now boasts a total of 9.34 million wireless subscribers. Telus also saw internet net additions of 30,000 and 10,000 for television. Both divisions saw a 9.1 percent decrease in subscribers, down from 33,000 and 11,000 respectively. Telus is reporting 2.3 million total internet subscribers, and 1.28 million television subscribers. Telus said it had a "record first quarter" for security net additions which totalled 26,000, a 52.9 percent increase since the first quarter of 2021. The company saw $4.28 billion in revenue this quarter which accounts for a 6.4 per cent increase from this time last year when Telus reported $4.02 billion in revenue. The company also saw a double digit percentage increase in net income from last year. Telus is reporting a 21.3 per cent jump in profits from $333 million to $404 million. Mobile network revenue increased by 4.9 per cent, for a total of $74 million, in the first quarter of 2022, “due to growth in the mobile phones and connected device subscriber base over the past 12 months” in addition to higher mobile phone average revenue per user (ARPU), according to the company’s report. Much like other telecom companies, ARPU saw an increase as COVID travel restrictions loosen and, as a result, roaming revenue increases. The ARPU totaled $56.45 in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of $0.35, 0.6 per cent, since last year. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Telus sees strong quarterly results for subscribers, says smarter spectrum policies needed

News | May 6, 2022

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Telus sees strong quarterly results for subscribers, says smarter spectrum policies needed

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