Yesterday, Bell announced their 2012 Q1 earnings. Their wireless division EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) increased 13% to $521 million, thanks to revenue growth of 5.5%. Bell activated 62,576 postpaid customers and smartphone adoption continued to rise, representing 52% of total postpaid subscribers. This was an increase of 34% compared to the year ago quarter. In contrast, Rogers acquired 47,000 postpaid subscribers but 60% of these users were smartphone owners.
Increased smartphone adoption resulted in higher mobile data revenue growth of 31% (Bell Mobile TV helped data revenue growth) and blended ARPU (average revenue per user) at $53.84.
CEO of BCE, George Cope:
“In Q1, we increased our smartphone customers and mobile data revenue significantly as we continued to roll out our new 4G LTE mobile network and enhance our industry-leading Bell Mobile TV service,”
Overall profit increased 14% for BCE to $574 million, based on $4.9 billion in revenue, which also rose almost 10% compared to the year ago quarter.
