Higher revenues, earnings powered by data, Telus says

Telus Corp. reported higher fourth-quarter annual earnings and revenues powered by increased data consumption and growth in its Optik TV business, the company said. In a quarterly financial report released Friday, Telus said its operating revenues grew to $2.85 billion in the three-month period ended Dec. 31, 2012, up six per cent over $2.69 billion during the same period a year earlier, while annual operating revenues were up five per cent to $10.92 billion. Fourth-quarter net income climbed 22.8 per cent to $291 million, the company said, and annual income increased 8.5 per cent to $1.32 billion. The company's fourth-quarter earnings increased 8.4 per cent to $947 million, the report said. Annual earnings grew by 5.1 per cent to $3.97 billion, it said. “ was an exceptional year for TELUS, fuelled by our long-term strategy of investing in broadband data technology and services and applications within our core business,” Darren Entwistle, the company's president and CEO, said in the report. Telus said it added 112,000 net wireless subscribers during the fourth quarter and 331,000 on the year, bringing its total wireless subscriber base to 7.67 million at the end of 2012. It said 85 per cent of those subscribers were now on more lucrative postpaid services. The company's wireless earnings reached $1.5 billion on the quarter, up 7.7 per cent from the same period a year earlier, Telus said. Its wireless data revenues were up 22 per cent to $570 million in the fourth quarter, the company said, and now account for 41 per cent of its total wireless revenues. Telus said it added 41,000 subscribers to its satellite and Internet protocol (IP) Optik TV services in the fourth-quarter, down 26.8 per cent from 56,000 during the same period a year earlier. It said its total TV subscriber base grew by 33 per cent on the year to 678,000 customers. Fibre-based IPTV providers Telus and BCE Inc. continue to make subscriber gains in their TV divisions at the expense of cable companies Shaw Communications Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. Shaw, Telus' chief rival in the Western Canada market, said in January that it lost 23,912 cable TV subscribers in the first quarter of its fiscal 2013 year, its highest quarterly subscriber loss in 10 years. Rogers said Thursday that it lost 25,000 TV subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2012 as it gained 22,000 Internet subscribers. Telus' total wireline data and equipment sales revenues increased to $770 million on the fourth quarter, up 13.2 per cent from $680 million a year earlier, the company said, powered by increased TV subscribers, enhanced data services, price increases and increased equipment sales to businesses. —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.caand editing by Danika Grenier at dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Higher revenues, earnings powered by data, Telus says

News | 02/15/2013 5:48 pm EST

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