Rogers Q4 2015: 31,000 New Postpaid Subs, Wireless Revenue Up 4%

Rogers logo

Rogers is the first of the Big 3 to announce its fourth-quarter earnings: The carrier today reported $3.45 billion in revenue and adjusted net income of $331 million. Revenue was up 3% compared to the same period a year ago and driven by of 4% growth in wireless, but income dropped 7% from last year’s $355 million.

Consolidated revenue increased 3% in the holiday quarter, due to revenue growth of 4% in wireless and 3% in Media. Wireless revenue increased due to continued adoption of Rogers Share Everything plans and increased device revenue. Cable revenue dropped due to the continued decline in television and phone revenue, partially offset by continued Internet revenue growth. Media revenue increased primarily as a result of growth at Sportsnet and the Toronto Blue Jays.

As the carrier steps forward with its Rogers 3.0 plan, it has managed to attract 31,000 postpaid wireless subscribers, which is up from last year, when it reported the loss of 58,000 subscribers.

Operating revenue of Rogers’ wireless division was $1.98 billion, up from $1.89 billion reported for the same period a year ago, while adjusted operating profit was $754 million, as detailed in the press release.

As of the end of 2015, Rogers has 8.27 million postpaid wireless subscribers, which includes Wireless Home Phone subscribers resulting in a base adjustment of approximately 92,000 cumulative subscribers, and a total of 1.6 million prepaid subscribers. Blended ARPU (average revenue per user) was $59.16, down 1% from last year’s $59.86. Rogers attributes the drop to the inclusion of lower-blended-ARPU-generating wireless home-phone subscribers in its postpaid base, and the acquisition of Mobilicity, which brought on board lower-paying prepaid wireless subscribers.

“Overall, we delivered steady results in a fiercely competitive quarter, including strong results in Wireless and Internet, where we maintained momentum in subscriber and financial metrics. We continued to make strong progress on postpaid churn thanks to the success of our customer propositions and customer experience improvements. Whilst we are making good progress, we aren’t resting on our laurels, and we recognize there is more work to do,” said Guy Laurence, President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications. “

The Rogers press release also notes that the deployment of its LTE network reached about 93% of Canada’s population as of December 31, 2015, up from 84% reported for December 2014.

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.