HALIFAX – Bell Aliant operating revenues were down $31 million (4%) in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the second quarter of 2009, the company reported today.
The decline was driven by declines in local and long distance revenues associated with lower network access services (NAS), lower data revenues and lower information technology (IT) service revenues. These decreases were partially offset by increases in Internet revenues, the company stated.
Operating expense reductions of $21 million (5.1%) from labour-related cost reductions and other cost containment initiatives mitigated the effects on EBITDA of lower revenues in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
EBITDA decreased by 2.8%, or $10 million in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. Excluding the effects of a one-time $3 million adjustment that reduced senior management long-term incentive plan expenses in the second quarter of 2009, EBITDA decreased 1.9% in the second quarter of 2010 compared to Q2 ‘09. Because of the improvement in operating expenses, EBITDA margin improved to 47.4% in the second quarter of 2010, up from 46.8% in the same quarter of 2009.
"We continue to accelerate our strategic objectives and our results are in line with our expectations, including the reduction in operating expenses of over $20 million from the second quarter of 2009 as we reset our cost structure," said Karen Sheriff, president and CEO, in the press release. "While competitive expansion in our territories continued to reduce our local service customer base, our NAS declines in the second quarter improved substantially from both the first quarter of this year and the same quarter a year ago.
"The rollout of our FibreOP services is proceeding well and I am very pleased with the results we are experiencing to date, particularly the take-up of our FibreOP bundles which include TV, Internet and home phone," continued Sheriff.
The company did not detail its subscriber figures for those bundles.
