By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor’s mobile wireless segment reported positive monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) growth on a year-over-year basis for the first time since the Freedom Mobile acquisition in April 2023.
ARPU was $35.23 in the fourth quarter, up 1.4 per cent or 48 cents, against the same quarter the year prior. Since the acquisition of Freedom from Shaw, mobile ARPU was consistently down against their comparable quarters, despite sequential improvements in the metric for every quarter in 2025 leading up to the final three months.
The company attributed the improvement this time around to lower promotional discounts and customers moving up to more expensive plans.
“Even in an increasingly competitive and sometimes unpredictable environment, we maintain pricing discipline and resisted industry-wide unsustainable promotional tactics,” Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said Thursday.
Quebecor has been the historic ARPU black sheep among the fourth national wireless carriers since the Freedom acquisition. It has been aggressively pursuing subscribers by undercutting the competition on price, inevitably leading to a significantly lower ARPU compared to its peers. That difference was significant enough for analysts to wonder how sustainable it was and when the company’s executives expected it to improve.
In its fourth quarter earnings call last year, Peladeau said the company needed to maintain price differentiation on wireless while blasting perennial Montreal rival Bell for what execs called “stupid” pricing practices driving down telecom revenues.
Chief Financial Officer Hugues Simard pointed to what its competitors will do as a determining factor in whether its ARPU will continue to improve, but noted that the company now has “momentum.”
“Should it stay … irrationally or unpredictably … competitive, then perhaps are we looking at stability of our ARPU going forward? My gut feeling is that we’ve got momentum there and we can take some heat on that.
“I’m confident that cooler heads will prevail and that we will continue growing ARPU going forward.”
Peladeau also noted that the wireless business has yet to reach its full potential in western Canada, where he said the company’s “market share is still low, but where we are actively improving and building out our network.”
Ultimately, the company’s strategy — like others — is to bundle services to maintian a lower churn, which is a metric that Quebecor has celebrated despite not making it public.
Total revenue in the quarter was $1.55 billion, up 3.2 per cent against the comparable period. Net income was up 19 per cent to $211.5 million.
Telecommunications revenue was $1.28 billion, up nearly $20 million from the same quarter last year.
Videotron added 74,000 mobile wireless subscribers, down by 12,000 against the comparable period. The total base by December 31 was 4.4 million, up about 311,000.
Internet additions were 3,700, up from a loss of 1,700, for a total base of 1.74 million, up by about 7,500.
The company lost 8,100 television subscribers, less than the 17,500 it lost in the same period last year, for a total base of 1.25 million – down by about 43,000.
Landline subscribers were down by 14,400, compared to a loss of 18,600 last year, for a total base of 547,700 – down by 61,200.
Media revenue was $239 million, up 23 per cent, or $44 million, due mainly to a retroactive agreement on carriage fees for specialty channels, including TVA Sports.
Advertising revenue decreased by 9 per cent, or $8.7 million, which was mainly in television. Other revenue increased by 14 per cent, or $7.4 million, mainly due to higher digital marketing revenues.
Sports and entertainment revenue was $58.4 million, down 15.6 per cent or $10.8 million, due primarily to lower concern revenues.
