Rogers CEO Nazir Mohamed, speaking to investors at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York last Tuesday, told the crowd the company is seeing a turnaround in growth as users consume more data thanks to smartphone adoption and a lessening impact from smaller wireless entrants.
Mohamed noted “clearly, the business has had an inflection, if you want to frame it that way, or stabilized.” Rogers had previously seen a consistent decline in voice revenue and customers to newer wireless entrants such as WIND Mobile. Voice revenues have now eased off below 10% and are steadying, compared to consistent double digit losses before.
Data revenue growth has been led by smartphone adoption, cited as having “lots of room to grow.” Rogers added 707,000 smartphone activations in its 2012 fiscal third quarter. Mohamed highlighted 65% of the Rogers subscriber base is linked to multiyear contracts to devices such as the iPhone, which produces twice the revenue of regular ‘feature’ phones. The changes have been reflected in the company’s stock price rising almost 25% since June.
“The consumer is what we need to be focused on,” Mr. Mohamed said. “And if we get that right, the regulation will work for us.”
The Rogers CEO also noted the important holiday period so far has been “very competitive” amongst incumbents and newer carriers.
Have you or anyone else signed onto a three year contract for a smartphone recently?
[via Financial Post]
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Voice usage down, data usage up, but I still can’t get a reasonably priced text and data only deal.
I laughed when I read this “The consumer is what we need to be focused on,”
9 moths left on my Rogers contract then I’m gone. I always defended Rogers as being compeditive with the other cell providers, but not anymore… the early upgrade nonsense with iPhone 5 was the last straw for me, and their customer service sucks. Sucks! It is going to be very satisfying to cancel.
I used to work for Rogers, and I am not currently with them as my phone provider, however, working in a call Center taking inbound calls for customer service, it’s not the customer services reps fault. In all honesty, it’s the companies policies or what they’d like you to follow as guidelines that make it horrible, as a rep. Trust me, I have been called quite a few colourful names lol
Watch Rogers customer levels drop off when Apple finally provides there own data/voice plans….& that’ll be the time the cancelation fees are tripled…..
Three year contracts are crazy. I left for Mobilicity, very happy. Rogers new revenue stream will be data overage charges. It goes like this: “Here’s a new three year plan, high speed bandwidth sucking phone and a tiny data plan, go wild [sucker]!”
I’ve got 10 mths left. I like Rogers. I’m not sure who I am going to switch to because Bell’s contracts are the same.
I moved this year and Rogers only has 1 tower in the city. Coverage is almost nothing where I live. When I complained to customer service, I was told “that’s the way it is”. Months later I got a phone call and I repeated that comment to the CSR and she offered me 100 more minutes per month for free, which is a riot… 100 more minutes of no coverage… thanks! So I ported my number to Bell… Telus/Bell has six! And Rogers can try and stick me with an early cancellation fee but I’ll fight it for sure.
dont wont to take rogers part here but they do seem to accomodate plan changes at no charge during phone contract. basically on a 3 year you are stuck with same phone. my previous phone was sony xperia x10 which I got in April 2010. it is still in operational state. with a 6gb data plan at 60 minus some discounts based on ur negotiating skills, I cant complain. however, 3 years sounds to long even for a cellphone!
best,
M.