By Ahmad Hathout
The combination of Cogeco’s Canadian and American operations is already yielding cost-saving results, the telecom’s executives said Friday, which includes an artificial intelligence chatbot that is managing some of the telecom’s customer service interactions.
“The results are above our expectations so far,” Frederic Perron, the telecom’s president and CEO, said of the chatbot called Charlie on the company’s fiscal third-quarter conference call. “In less than one month, Charlie has successfully handled tens of thousands of customer interactions, many of which did not require a transfer to a human.
“Charlie will continue to evolve and will be deployed in Canada over the coming weeks, using the same platform and vendor as in the U.S. in order to maximize synergies between our two countries,” Perron added.
In May, the Montreal-based company announced a new organizational structure that combines the commercial, operational and technical functions of its Canadian telecommunications business Cogeco Connexion and its U.S. telecom business Breezeline into a single North American organization.
Perron said the restructuring will allow it to react faster to a quickly evolving industry, but also to save on costs which the company said it will be reinvesting in areas of future growth where it previously underinvested.
“This restructuring is something we see a lot of potential in, not only from a cost perspective but also from a performance and overall accelerating growth perspective,” Perron said Friday. “We saw an opportunity to create larger, meatier centres of expertise on key topics that will ensure our competitiveness on an ongoing basis. So examples of that would be marketing, digital, product and analytics.”
Perron also said negotiations are still ongoing to lease capacity from the large mobile network operators to launch its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business in Canada. The company has already launched its MVNO in the United States.
In the three months ending on May 31, Cogeco’s Canadian telecom operations saw a revenue bump of 2.2 per cent to $381.9 million compared to the same period last year due in part to a higher internet service subscriber base. American telecom revenues were flat at $368.7 compared to the equivalent period last year.
On the Canadian side, the telecom added 5,879 internet subscribers, down from the 11,144 it added in the same period last year for a total base of 882,992. That was attributed to adds on the Cogeco and oxio brands and new subs on the last-mile fibre expansion.
Video subscribers saw a bigger loss at 6,000 compared to the 3,790 it lost last year for a total base of 612,701. That was attributed, in part, to changing viewer habits.
Landlines saw a loss of 2,971 compared to the 1,062 it lost last year for a total base of 376,597. That was attributed, in part, to more people going the mobile phone route.
Breezeline saw losses across those segments. For internet subs, it saw a loss of 7,897 compared to the 6,734 it lost last year. The company attributed that, in part, to the federal subsidy program called the Affordable Connectivity Fund running out of money and no congressional action to top up the money. However, it also said it has seen more customers come on in some areas from its last-mile fibre expansion.
The total Breezeline internet base sat at 652,330 by the end of the quarter.
Video subscriber losses were 6,192 in the quarter compared to the 3,732 it lost last year, for a total base of 268,747. That was attributed, in part, to changes in consumer habits, including shifting toward internet-led streaming services.
Landline subscribers dipped by 3,645 compared to 3,743 last year, for a total base of 128,036.
Photo of Cogeco president and CEO Frédéric Perron
