- BCE (BCE -0.6%) beat on top and bottom lines in its Q2 results paced by strong wireless growth and accelerating growth in its wireline business.
- Net earnings dipped 3.9% to C$792M, while EBITDA rose 5% to C$2.38B.
- Total customer connections across all services rose 4.8% Y/Y to 21.92M: 8.9M wireless (up 7.5%); 3.72M high-speed Internet (up 8.8%); 2.82M TV subs (up 2.7%); total NAS lines of 6.48M (near flat).
- The company added 88,611 net new wireless postpaid customers. It saw a net loss of 21,695 wireless prepaid subs.
- In wirelines, it added 16,427 net new Fibe TV customers, lost 29,764 net satellite TV customers, and added 1,407 net new high-speed Internet customers.
- Revenue by segment: Bell Wireless, C$1.96B (up 12.9%); Bell Wireline, C$3.12B (up 4.8%); Bell Media, C$796M (up 2.2%)
- Free cash flow rose 17.1% to C$1.09B.
- The company reiterated its April guidance for 2017: for 4-6% growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA, EPS of C$3.30-$3.40 (vs. consensus for C$3.36), and free cash flow growth of 5-10%.
- Press Release
- Now read: Why I Ditched U.S. Telecoms
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