By Ahmad Hathout
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said Thursday that the telecom has a tiny amount of lead cables left in its network as it moves toward replacing the legacy cables with fibre, following a report from the Wall Street Journal last month that alleged the toxic substance was lingering in America’s telecommunications cables.
The Journal report alleges when the cables still in service degrade, the lead spreads to the surrounding environment, allegedly posing a health hazard. AT&T, working with regulators, has since denied the health hazard claims related to its own cables and has suspended the removal of them from Lake Tahoe.
“This makes up a very small percentage of Bell’s overall wireline infrastructure with only 0.36 per cent of our networks still containing lead,” Bibic said in his opening remarks on the company’s second-quarter conference call.
“Bell transitioned away from installing lead-covered copper cables in the 1960s when we began to deploy plastic polymers in place of lead for the majority of our cable deployment,” Bibic added.
“Since the mid-2000s, Bell has also been replacing these copper cables with fibre,” he noted. “As we upgrade our network from copper to pure fibre, we have been removing any lead-containing components in active construction areas where feasible and safe to do so in-line with established safe-handling protocols.”
These lead-clad cables, which can be found under water or over wood poles, had been installed decades ago in networks across Canada and the United States.
And it’s not the only substance regulators have been catching up to that could pose dangers.
Earlier this year, Cartt reported that a chemical in a pesticide used to preserve wood poles, called pentachlorophenol or penta, could still be present in some legacy poles. Health Canada issued a notice in October 2022 cancelling the use of the chemical, which takes effect later this year.
Innovation Canada and some telecoms have said this won’t have a significant impact on broadband rollout. Cogeco, however, said the replacement of the penta poles could impact timelines for broadband projects.
Bibic also spoke briefly about the CRTC’s recent decision to select Quebecor’s price to ride Rogers’s wireless network, which the latter is considering appealing. Analysts have been wondering whether the decision could set a precedent for future price arbitration hearings for mobile virtual network operator agreements, seeing as Quebecor still has an outstanding arbitration case with Bell’s network.
But Bibic said while there was some “attention grabbing” language related to the rate setting reasoning by the CRTC in its decision (he didn’t elaborate), Bibic said that could just be confined to the specific offers of the two parties and may not represent any basis for future decisions.
Compared to the previous second quarter, Bell saw a revenue increase of 3.5 per cent to $6.1 billion, attributed to higher service and product revenues but offset by a decline in media money.
Net earnings declined 40 per cent over the same period to $397 million, attributed in part to expenses including a repurchase of a minority stake in an investment, higher interest, higher severance, acquisition and other costs related to workforce reductions.
Bell added roughly 125,000 net new mobile wireless subscribers in the quarter, higher than the 110,760 it added in the comparable period. Postpaid adds were up to 111,000 in the quarter compared to the 83,200 it added last year. Bell added 14,257 new prepaid adds, down compared to the 27,564 it added in the same quarter last year.
The total postpaid base at the end of the quarter sat at 9.1 million, higher than the 8.7 by the end of the same quarter last year. The prepaid base is also higher this year at 876,800 compared to the 854,650 it had last year.
Blended average revenue per user per month sat slightly lower at $58.66.
Bell also reported a higher number of internet-connected devices getting on its network, with a total base of 2.6 million. The rollout of 5G networks and connected devices are expected to add to this part of the telecoms’ business.
The telco also added more net new internet subscribers in the quarter, with 25,000 new adds versus the 22,600 last year. The total base at the end of the quarter sat at 4.3 million.
Net new IPTV subscribers were also up to 22,400 in the quarter compared to just 3,838 in the comparable period. Including satellite television, the total base by end of quarter was 2.7 million subscribers.
Bell Media saw a revenue decline of 16 per cent over the year to $805 million, as the industry struggles with a poor advertising climate.
Screenshot of Bell CEO Mirko Bibic.
