VANCOUVER –Telus Corp reported a 5.5% increase in quarterly profits on the strength of wireless revenue and new mobile phone and Internet subscribers, but chief executive office Darren Entwistle told a conference call with analysts that the company needs to further reduce operating expenses.
"Despite the fact that since 2001 Telus’s ongoing investment in restructuring and workforce reduction totals $1 billion, I am less than satisfied with the revision of our restructuring expense target from $50 million to $30 million," said Entwistle.
Telus earned $267 million in the second quarter ended June 30. That was up 5.5 per cent from $253.1 million in the same period a year earlier. Canada’s second-biggest telecom operator reported revenue from wireless services up nine per cent from a year ago and a gain in revenue from wireline data services of 20%. The company said its net wireless subscriber additions rose 37% to 175,600 from a year earlier.
“We are also pleased with the initial success in converting more than one million residential customers in British Columbia from various legacy systems to our recently developed integrated billing and client care system,” added Entwistle.
The company noted that average revenue per user declined by 1.4 per cent to $62.73, which Telus blamed on the "increased prepaid subscriber base, lower pricing, including use of included-minute rate plans and lower inbound roaming."
The wireline division added $76 million in external revenues, or a 6.5 per cent increase, to reach $1.26 billion in sales, despite declines in local revenues. Telus says its high-speed Internet business gained 23,600 subscribers, up 70% from a year earlier.
Overall, the Vancouver-based company said its revenue was $2.4 billion, up eight per cent from the second quarter of 2007. Telus also raised its revenue guidance for the year. It now expects consolidated revenues between $9.675 billion and $9.825 billion, raised from an earlier projection of $9.6 billion to $9.8 billion.
