HALIFAX – Growth in regional telco Bell Aliant’s TV, Internet, wireless segments helped operating revenues increase by $2 million to $684 million in the first quarter of 2013.
The company reported a first-quarter profit of $84 million, up $1 million from the same period last year. Those gains, however, were offset by lower revenue from Bell Aliant’s local and long-distance telephone services. “Returning to revenue growth is a key milestone in our strategy and our first quarter results have us off to a great start for 2013,” said Karen Sheriff, Bell Aliant president and CEO, in a release.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), which declined by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period a year earlier, included a $4 million largely retroactive charge from a CRTC decision affecting wholesale Internet rates.
Total data revenue including Internet and TV increased $19 million, or 8%, in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012. Internet revenue increased by 6.4% to $8 million, with residential high-speed average revenue per customer (ARPC) in the first quarter of 2013 up 6% from the same quarter a year earlier.
Bell Aliant says the ARPC increase was a result of selected pricing action and customer demand for higher bandwidth bundles and other services. Growth in high-speed Internet customers of 2.8% from a year earlier also contributed to Internet revenue growth. FibreOP Internet customers grew by 17,900 to 130,100 at the end of March 2013.
IPTV revenue grew $11 million in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the first quarter of 2012 with total IPTV customers of 137,300 at the end of March 2013. FibreOP TV customers grew by 15,600 in the quarter to reach 112,500, a portion of which were migrations from Bell Aliant’s FTTN TV service. Overall net IPTV customer additions were 14,300 in the first quarter of 2013, compared to 7,900 a year earlier.
Bell Aliant passed an additional 23,000 premises with FTTH in the first quarter of 2013, compared to 58,000 incremental premises in the first quarter of 2012. Total FTTH coverage reached more than 679,000 premises at the end of March 2013. Approximately 5,000 more customer premises were connected to Bell Aliant's FTTH network in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same quarter in 2012. FibreOP penetration of premises passed reached 19.6% at the end of March 2013.
Local service and long distance revenues declined $14 million (4.9%) and $9 million (10%), respectively, in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same quarter in 2012, driven by NAS declines of 5.2%. Residential net NAS declines of 26,200 in the first quarter of 2013 were on par with the same quarter in 2012. Improved residential customer activations, winbacks and retention in FibreOP markets, and expansion into new markets helped to mitigate declines arising from intense competitive activity throughout our markets. Business net NAS declines of 5,900 improved by 2,700 from the same quarter a year earlier, mainly as a result of expansion into new markets.
Wireless revenues were up 6.1% to $2 million in the first quarter, compared to the same quarter in 2012, driven by 4.2% customer growth and 1.4% wireless ARPC growth compared to a year ago.
