Telus released its third quarter earnings today, noting it saw an increase of wireless net additions of 193,000, consisting of 111,000 mobile phones and 82,000 connected devices. Along with 32,000 internet and 19,000 TV net additions, Telus says it saw a 14% increase year-over-year in dual tenet customer growth.
Wireless network revenue was at $1.6 billion, an increase of $31 million or 2 per cent year-over-year. As for the mobile phone average bill per user metric (ABPU), it was at $75.06, an increase of 0.5 per cent. Telus says this modest increase was partly due to “customers selecting plans with endless data or larger data buckets and higher value smartphones in the sales mix.”
Telus saw its mobile phone churn rate—or the monthly percentage of users leaving to another carrier—increase 6 basis points to 1.09, due to “heightened competitive intensity during the seasonal promotional period and not matching uneconomic market offers.”
“TELUS reported strong operational and financial results for the third quarter, including robust customer growth across both our wireless and wireline business segments. The expansion of our subscriber base by 246,000 customers was driven by high-quality mobile phone net additions, strong growth in connected device subscribers and industry-leading wireline net additions,” said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO, in a statement.
Telus saw overall operating revenue of $3.7 billion, up 2.6 per cent year-over-year (excludes its Telus Garden gain in 2018). Net income for the third quarter was $440 million, a decrease of 1.6 per cent compared to the year ago quarter.
