Bell Canada today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter of 2022 ended September 30.
For its wireless business, Bell reported $2.466 billion in operating revenue, an increase of 7.4% year-over-year. The company also superseded its Q2 wireless revenue of $2.246 billion.
Bell’s solid quarterly revenue in the wireless segment was driven by strong growth in both service and product income. Service revenue was up 7.0% to $1.769 billion in Q3, while wireless product revenue was up 8.6% to $697 million.
The company saw its “best-ever” quarterly net prepaid and postpaid phone subscriber additions of 224,343, up 64.4% year-over-year. Bell’s blended average revenue per user (ARPU) was up 2.2%. Adjusted EBIDTA for Bell’s wireless business increased 7.8% to $1.049 billion.
Bell’s wireline operating revenue, on the other hand, increased 1.0% year-over-year to $3.046 billion with adjusted EBITDA declining 1.2% to $1.317 billion.
“The Bell team’s continued excellence in executing on our strategy and customer-centric approach, combined with our leading networks has delivered strong results this quarter, firmly placing Bell in a solid competitive position as we head into the end of the year,” said Mirko Bibic, President and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada.
“We’re seeing clear demand from Canadians for differentiated fibre Internet services and fast, reliable wireless networks. We experienced over 400,000 net activations across our wireline and wireless networks, with our highest-ever number of total mobile phone net additions,”
Across all of its business segments, Bell posted operating revenues of $6.024 billion, up 3.2% year-over-year from Q3 2021. Bell’s consolidated adjusted EBITDA grew 1.2% to $2.588 billion.
Net income for the quarter, however, was down 5.2% to $771 million. Furthermore, net earnings per common share (EPS) dipped 6.0% to $0.78.
“Bell’s Q3 financial results highlight our consistent execution excellence and leading asset mix across all Bell operating segments, which delivered strong consolidated revenue growth of 3.2%. Despite sizeable costs related to storms and inflationary pressures absorbed in the quarter, our disciplined approach in balancing market share growth and financial performance resulted in a respectable adjusted EBITDA increase of 1.2%,” said Glen LeBlanc, CFO of BCE and Bell Canada.
LeBlanc also noted that Bell is on track to achieve all of its financial guidance targets for 2022. “With three quarters of favourable consolidated results already reported, and a competitive position that’s better than ever, we are on track to deliver on our 2022 financial guidance targets,” he added.
Last week, Bell announced the launch of Bell Ventures, a new division focused on investing in Canadian startups that are leveraging the company’s 5G and PureFibre networks.
