HALIFAX – Bell Aliant reported an $80 million profit on the strength of its fibre-to-the-home network and an increase in television customers.
Operating revenues for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2011 were $701 million, down 2% when compared to the same quarter of 2010, the company said Tuesday. However, fourth quarter 2010 revenues included out-of-the-ordinary favourable adjustments related to contribution revenues and pole attachment fees, and "unusually strong" product sales. Excluding these adjustments, fourth quarter 2011 revenues were flat compared to the same period last year, with growth in Internet and TV revenues offsetting declines in local and long distance revenues from lower network access services (NAS).
EBITDA of $324 million was 6% lower than $345 million recorded in the same quarter a year ago.
High-speed Internet customers were 862,000 at quarter end, up 2.4% year-over-year, while FibreOP Internet customers grew by 13,000 to reach 47,000. Net IPTV customer additions were 9,000, and the company ended 2011 with a total of 77,000 IPTV customers.
The regional telco also extended its FTTH coverage to 458,000 premises by the end of December 2011, and said that it now plans to pass approximately 650,000 premises by the end of 2012, up slightly from its previous target of more than 600,000.
President and CEO Karen Sheriff said that she was “pleased” with the results, and described 2011 as “a year of solid execution”.
"We met or exceeded all of our financial targets while executing an aggressive construction program expanding our fibre-to-the-home coverage area”, she said in a statement. “This expansion is improving our opportunities for revenue growth by giving more customers access to the best Internet and TV service bundle available in our markets.”
Bell Aliant offered a 2012 guidance of operating revenue of between $2.70 and $2.78 billion. It’s board of directors also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.4750 per common share, payable at the end of March to shareholders of record.
