Competition helps pull down Q3 revenues at Bell Aliant

HALIFAX – Bell Aliant saw its operating revenues drop by 3.7% ($27 million) in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the third quarter of 2009. The company said Wednesday that the dip was driven by declines in local and long distance revenues associated with lower network access services (NAS) and lower data revenues. These decreases were partially offset by increases in Internet revenues.Operating expense reductions continued, with a 4.6% ($16 million) decline year-over-year driven by labour-related cost reductions and other cost containment initiatives, which helped to mitigate the effects on EBITDA of lower revenues. EBITDA decreased by 2.7% ($10...