By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor on Thursday reported its telecom division added over 300,000 new wireless customers, which its CEO attributed to a steadfast strategy of providing attractive low-cost plans after the acquisition of Freedom Mobile.
Videotron ended the quarter on June 30 with a total of 3.9 million subscribers, up from the roughly 3.6 million it had by the end of the same quarter last year — which also included the Freedom Mobile subscriber base, purchased in April 2023.
“There will be nothing stopping us,” Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau declared on a second-quarter conference call Thursday, referencing the year-over-year increase of just over 300,000 gross subscribers and reiterating that affordability is the company’s key growth strategy. The telecom saw its highest number of net new subscribers at 93,000 in the quarter, 44,000 more than it added in the second quarter last year.
Videotron’s Freedom has been making steady moves to shake up the market ahead of the back-to-school and holiday seasons. In the spring, it introduced internet and television bundling in its mobile footprint, expanded to 50 more communities across British Columbia and Alberta, and added roaming and 5G to all monthly mobile plans, which include additional low-cost offers with less data per month.
“Establishing ourselves as a multi-service player across Canada is a key milestone in our plans to foster healthy competition and give Canadians better telecommunications options at the right price,” Peladeau said, adding the company is trying to maintain “credibility” by keeping prices affordable for Canadians. “We are delivering what we said.”
For a second straight quarter, Peladeau also touted the telecom’s relatively stable churn rate as compared to its larger peers, which have reported higher churn.
But the low-cost offers and competitive prices have come at the cost of its average revenue per user (ARPU) metric, which declined over the year by $2.45 to roughly $35.32 – attributable in part to more promo and prepaid uptake. That was 62 cents lower than the $35.94 it averaged in the first quarter. Analysts have for consecutive quarters wondered whether there is any leeway to increase the telecom’s ARPU with its subscriber-acquisition strategy, but executives said they are comfortable with where they are.
Mobile wireless revenues were $410 million in the quarter, up by 2.2 per cent compared to the same quarter last year.
The telecom also added roughly 5,700 internet subscribers to its base in the quarter for a total of 1.7 million. Internet revenues were down 1.9 per cent this quarter compared to the same period last year to roughly $316 million.
Television subscribers were down over the year by about 52,600 for a total base of roughly 1.3 million. Revenues in the segment were down 3.6 per cent to roughly $196 million.
Landlines were down over the year as well by 68,700, for a total base of roughly 643,400 and revenues in the quarter that were down 11.5 per cent to about $63 million.
Total telecom revenues were roughly $1.186 billion in the quarter, down about $14 million from the $1.2 billion it brought in last year.
Media revenues were $184 million, up roughly $4 million compared to last year.
Across Quebecor, revenues were down by less than one per cent to roughly $1.4 billion in the quarter, but net income was up about $35 million over the year to $207 million.
