TORONTO – While still posting healthy subscriber gains across all products, the rate of growth in 2008 at Rogers Wireless, cable, telecom and Internet slowed in 2008, the company announced with the release of its preliminary year-end subscriber results this morning.
The company’s Apple iPhone rollout continued to proceed well as Rogers added 130,000 customers for the device in the quarter, 40% of which were new customers.
"Rogers ended 2008 with healthy growth in both our wireless and cable subscriber bases reflecting our innovative offerings that have the features, convenience and value that Canadians want," said Alan Horn, chairman and acting CEO, in a statement.
"We continue to focus on the higher value segments in both wireless and cable. Our wireless subscriber results reflect our success in driving greater penetration of more advanced wireless data devices and services. While our fourth quarter cable subscriber additions reflect the challenging economic backdrop, we continued to enhance our high penetration levels in Internet and home phone and achieved success during the fourth quarter with our seasonal digital cable campaign."
The company added 604,000 new wireless customers in 2008, an 8.2% increase, for a total of 7.9 million. However, the rate of growth fell by 7.2% year over year.
On the cable side, basic subs rose slightly to 2.32 million and digital households now stand at 1.55 million (66% penetration), having added 197,000 new digital customers in 2008, 61,000 alone in the fourth quarter – exactly the same number added in Q4 2007.
The company now has 1.58 million high speed Internet customers, up 8% over 2007, but the rate of growth slowed by 38% YOY. On the cable phone side, customers rose by 28% to 840,000, but growth there, too, has slowed.
These subscriber results for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 are provided for informational purposes only “and should not be used to infer or draw conclusions with respect to Rogers’ financial performance,” says the press release.
The company will release its unaudited fourth quarter 2008 financial results and full year 2009 guidance before North American markets open the morning of February 18, 2009.
