Bell Canada Q2 2022: Wireless Revenue Up, Profits Down 11% to $654 Million

Bell Canada today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter of 2022 ended June 30.

For its wireless business, Bell reported $2.246 billion in operating revenue, an increase of 5.5% year-over-year. The company also superseded its Q1 wireless revenue of $2.210 billion.

Bell’s solid quarterly revenue in the wireless segment was driven by strong growth in service revenue, which was up 7.8% to $1.703 billion in Q2. Meanwhile, wireless product revenue was down 0.9% to $543 million.

The company saw its “best-ever” quarterly postpaid churn rate of 0.75%, meaning fewer wireless customers left the company. Blended average revenue per user (ARPU) was up 3.8%.

Adjusted EBIDTA for Bell’s wireless business increased 8.3% to $1.049 billion. The telco added a total of 110,761 net new postpaid and prepaid mobile phone subscribers, up 139.5% compared to just 46,247 in Q2 2021.

Bell’s wireline operating revenue, on the other hand, declined 0.3% year-over-year to $2.995 billion with adjusted EBITDA growing 1.7% to $1.315 billion.

“The Bell team continues to deliver for all the stakeholders we serve,” said Mirko Bibic, President and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada.

“Q2 marked another quarter of consistent operational execution, demonstrating that our strategy to reach more Canadians in communities large and small across our footprint with the best network technologies, as well as our efforts to champion the customer experience is the right approach to move us forward.”

Across all of its business segments, Bell posted operating revenues of $5.86 billion, up 2.9% year-over-year from Q2 2021, with consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth of 4.6% to $2.59 billion.

Net income for the quarter, however, was down 10.9% to $654 million. Furthermore, net earnings per share dipped 13.2% to $0.66.

“Bell’s Q2 financial results continued to demonstrate our disciplined focus on profitable customer growth and effective management of challenging global macroeconomic conditions, as evidenced by another quarter of healthy consolidated revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow growth that remain in line with our financial guidance targets for 2022, supporting sustainable value creation for all stakeholders,” said Glen LeBlanc, CFO of BCE and Bell Canada.

In comparison, fellow telecom giant Rogers Communications saw its net earnings grow 35% to $409 million in the same period. Bell has reaffirmed all of its financial guidance targets for 2022.

“By the end of the year, we will have invested $14 billion since 2020, including planned capital expenditures of approximately $5 billion for 2022, the highest amount ever by a Canadian telecom company in both a single year and over a three-year cycle,” said Bibic.

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