Telus says it had a strong holiday quarter, with the company’s total revenue increasing by 2.7% to $3.3 billion in the quarter compared to the same period a year ago. Profits were down 66.7% to $87 million compared to $261 million in Q4 of 2015.
The significant drop in the corporation’s total net income was attributed to “significantly higher restructuring and other costs, primarily reflecting the transformative compensation expense”, the press release reads.
Wireless network revenue increased by $86 million (5.4%) compared to a year ago to $1.7 billion, driven by a larger proportion of higher-rate, two-year contracts, and increased adoption of data traffic. The growth was partially offset by the ongoing decline in voice revenue from rising adoption of unlimited nationwide voice plans.
Telus says it added 87,000 net postpaid wireless subscribers during the quarter, which compares to Rogers’ 93,000 and Bell’s 112,393. As of the end of 2016, Telus has a total of 8,585,000 subscribers. Of those, postpaid account for the majority or 87.9% with 7,550,000, while prepaid customers hardly surpass one million.
Blended average revenue per user or ARPU was higher by 3.9% at $66.24 during the three months ending December 31, representing Telus’ 25th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.
