Rogers announced its Q4 earnings this morning and during its earnings call, detailed a timeline of when Canada’s first 5G device will debut.
During the quarter, Rogers added 131,000 postpaid wireless subscribers and now has 1.4 million people on Infinite unlimited data plans. These plans have no overages, thus resulted in a one per cent decline in services revenue for the quarter, according to Rogers CEO Joe Natale.
The Rogers CEO also touched on its 5G deployment, saying it needs “regulation that encourages investment and fuels innovation” from the federal government.
Natale said “punitive regulation will slow or worse 5G deployment,” in what appears to be a veiled reference to the CRTC’s investigation into mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which are aimed at increasing competition and lowering wireless prices. The Trudeau government has promised to lower wireless prices by 25 per cent within the next two years.
The CEO also said, “we just finished testing Canada’s first 5G device from Samsung, which will become available in March.”
Natale didn’t specify what this device would be, but Samsung has its Unpacked 2020 Event slated for February 11, when it is expected to unveil its latest Galaxy S20 flagship. As for Apple, it is rumoured to launch its first 5G iPhones later this year.
For its fiscal 2019, Rogers had overall revenues of $15.07 billion, resulting in a net income of $2.04 billion.
Update: Jennifer Safruk, Vice President, Mobile Division, Samsung Canada, told iPhone in Canada the following statement: “We are focused on being a 5G leader in Canada. Being the first to put 5G in consumers’ hands is one of the ways Samsung will do that.”
