HALIFAX – "Our third quarter results met our expectations and we are on track to achieve our targets for 2007," said Stephen Wetmore, President and CEO of Bell Aliant on the release of the company’s third quarter results today.
"I am also pleased that this quarter marked the beginnings of a more positive regulatory environment for local service. We have already acted on this to bring new offers to our customers and they will continue to benefit from our ability to more quickly and effectively meet their needs within this environment."
As readers will recall, the CRTC eliminated many restrictions on the traditional telcos (such as the disposal of win-back restrictions) and deregulated most metropolitan areas so that ILECs can more effectively compete in their markets and respond to competition – in Aliant’s case, cableco EastLink.
Operating revenue increased $12.8 million (1.6%) in the third quarter of 2007 compared to the same period a year ago with strong growth in data and Internet revenues (9.0%). Internet revenue grew by $5.5 million in the quarter with high-speed Internet subscribers growing by 19% from a year ago. Other data revenues grew by $9.6 million (10.6%) compared to the same period last year.
Information Technology revenue increased by $3.7 million in the quarter compared to the same period last year with higher sales of computer hardware and software, says the company’s press release.
Local service and long distance revenue declined by $6 million (1.6%) and $4.5 million (3.5%), respectively, in the third quarter of 2007 compared to the third quarter in 2006. Network access services ("NAS") were 3.1% lower than a year ago with net NAS declines of 20,676 in the quarter approximately 7.0% lower than those experienced in each of the first two quarters of 2007.
Higher revenues, cost containment achieved through productivity improvements and lower provincial capital taxes resulted in an EBITDA increase of $5.7 million (1.6%) in the third quarter of 2007 from the same period a year ago.
“In line with Bell Aliant’s business plan, distributable cash decreased by $8.3 million (4.5%) in the third quarter of 2007 from the same period 2006 as a result of the higher capital expenditures. Bell Aliant’s continued accelerated rollout of fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) technology in the third quarter more than accounted for the increase in total capital expenditures of $8.0 million (6.1%) over the same period in 2006,” says the release.
During the third quarter, the CRTC released several decisions dealing with Bell Aliant’s residential and business local service forbearance applications. The CRTC granted forbearance for a number of communities in Atlantic Canada, and in addition granted conditional forbearance for numerous communities in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, contingent upon meeting specified competitor quality of service criteria.
