VANCOUVER – Telus saw consolidated operating revenue increase 4.2% to $3.6 billion in the second quarter, ended June 30th, thanks to strong growth on the wired and wireless sides of the business.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 9.8% as compared to the second quarter of 2018 to $1.4 billion. The company noted in its press release that growth was partly offset by declines in wireline legacy voice and legacy data services.
For the quarter, net income of $520 million increased by 31% over the same period a year ago due to EBITDA growth and lower income taxes, including a $121 million benefit from the revaluation of the deferred income tax liability for the multi-year reduction in the Alberta provincial corporate tax rate, reads the press release.
Telus saw net subscriber growth of 186,000 customers, 33% better than Q2 2018, which included wireless customer additions of 154,000, up 45% – which breaks down further to 82,000 new mobile phone additions, up 19%, and 72,000 mobile connected devices additions.
The company added a total of 195,000 new customers in Q2, counting its 25,000 new Internet subscribers and 16,000 TV customers. Legacy residential voice losses were 9,000 in the quarter.
The company also noted that 2.04 million premises are now PureFibre enabled (which is what the company calls its fibre-to-the-premises program), representing an increase of 390,000 in the quarter, meaning approximately 64% of its high speed broadband footprint is fibre covered. That will approach 70% by year-end, reads the company’s press release.
Telus’ total wireless subscriber base of 9.9 million is up 5.4% over the last twelve months, “reflecting a 3.2% increase in our mobile phones subscriber base to over 8.5 million and a 21% increase to our mobile connected devices subscriber base to more than 1.3 million. Our Internet connections of 1.9 million are up 7.1% and our Telus TV subscriber base of 1.1 million is higher by 7.1%,” reads the release.
Consolidated capital expenditures of $770 million declined by 2.7% this Q2 compared to the prior year’s second quarter.
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