Rogers has released their 2014 Q1 results and the wireless carrier saw its total subscriber count grow to 9.432 million combined postpaid (8.076 million) and prepaid (1.356 million) users.
Wireless revenue declined 2 percent compared to a year ago to $1.73 billion, which the company says “was mainly related to pricing changes associated with new customer friendly simplified plans and lower priced roaming plans introduced mid-2013.”
Wireless data revenue increased 10 percent and exceeded voice revenue for the first time, while 579,000 smartphones were upgraded and activated, down from 673,000 from a year ago. Only 2,000 new postpaid customers were added compared to 32,000 a year ago.
Rogers says the reasoning for the decline was because existing subscriber upgrades declined 14 percent, “partly due to the move from three to two year contracts and the associated pricing changes.”
Monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) for postpaid users was at $65.20, a 3.36 percent decline, while the blended ARPU was at $57.63, a 2.05 percent decline.
Richard Choe, analyst at JPMorgan, wrote in a recent note to clients he does not expect a quick turnaround in the wireless business at Rogers, due to competition from rivals in a maturing business:
“We believe a quick turnaround for the wireless business is unlikely,”
“We believe the roaming and voice feature plan changes will continue to weigh on results for the first half of 2014.”
Total Q1 revenue for Rogers was $3.02 billion with a profit of $307 million.
