SAINT JOHN – Aliant president and CEO Jay Forbes told financial analysts on Friday that he’s holding out hope that the CRTC will see it their way when it comes to forbearing from regulating its local telephony markets.
Aliant and all other Canadian telecom stakeholders faced the Commission during the week of September 26th to give their opinion on local telephony competition and at what stage the Regulator should de-regulate local phone markets.
The local forbearance hearing (which was attended by www.cartt.ca) was initiated by an Aliant request early in 2005 that it be relieved of regulation in 32 exchanges in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island because competition was so fierce that regulation should cease. It told the Commission that it had lost an average of 33% of its customers in those exchanges, mostly to cable company EastLink.
EastLink’s cable brethren, of course, say it’s too early to deregulate, but the hearings were meant to figure out just what point it becomes fair to deregulate local telephony.
However, when asked on Friday for his opinion on the regulatory landscape going forward post-hearing, Forbes responded by calling the greater Halifax area “the most competitive” telecom market in North America.
“The competition that has taken place there and the market share that has been lost is quite indicative of the competitiveness of that marketplace and should position us for a favourable outcome by the CRTC,” he said, noting the Commission has given itself a deadline of 150 days to come to a decision.
“We would welcome the opportunity to have fewer constraints on how we market and provide services to our customers… We’re hopeful.”
As for the financial results at Aliant for the third quarter, ended September 30th, numbers have returned to more normal levels this year as compared to last year, when the company endured a five-month strike that lasted through most of Q3 2004.
Consolidated revenues were up 4.2% in the third quarter of 2005, compared to last year’s quarter and net income increased 37.2% to $50.8 million.
The company didn’t release any Aliant TV subscriber numbers, however. The DSL TV service launched in June of this year and Forbes says the company is very happy with uptake so far. “Most customers are rating Aliant TV as much better than the service from their previous supplier,” he said.
“We’re absolutely delighted with the response we’re getting… (Penetration) is a little ahead of our expectations.”
Overall revenue growth was 3.4%, compared to the same quarter last year. Wireless revenues for the quarter grew 13.5% year over year, primarily due to a 3.4% increase in average revenue per customers and a busy fall season that saw us more than double the number of net activations to 16,508 during the third quarter compared to the same quarter last year. Internet revenues for the quarter grew 10.9% year over year while customers are up 6.9%, driven by the company’s back-to-school program, proactive management of dial migrations, success in marketing its new small business Internet service, and the launch of the Aliant PC purchase program where over half of all PC purchases were accompanied by new Internet activations. This quarter’s high-speed Internet customer net additions of 18,434 were the most added in any single quarter in Aliant’s history.
“We are very pleased with our performance this quarter as we continue to grow our wireless and Internet businesses by expanding our networks and introducing new service offerings. In doing so, we are attracting a substantial number of new customers and generating solid revenue growth,” said Forbes. “With the strategic marketing agreement we recently announced with Killam Properties Inc., the largest multi-unit residential property owner in the region, both companies will market our services, including all consumer information, communication and entertainment products, to 8,800 residential and manufactured home community units across Atlantic Canada.”
