WINNIPEG – MTS Allstream continued to record modest growth for its MTS TV product, broadband and wireless for its third quarter ended September 30, 2010.
Digital TV revenues increased by 10.2% for the quarter based on 6.4% subscriber growth and increased ARPU. MTS Ultimate TV, which is the company’s premium television service, now represents 34% of its TV customer base.
At the end of the third quarter, the company had more than 30,000 subscribers to its MTS Ultimate TV service, as compared to approximately 25,000 at the end of the second quarter of 2010. In total, it reported 89,604 digital television subscribers at September 30, 2010.
High-speed Internet revenues were up 1.3% for the quarter compared to prior year with high-speed Internet customers increasing by 2.4% in the period. At quarter end, its high-speed Internet subscriber base totalled 184,797.
MTS also said that it was making “excellent progress” on its high-speed packet access (HSPA) network build with Rogers, and is now moving into a technical test phase. It is on track to fully launch HSPA services in the first quarter of 2011. At quarter end, MTS reported 476,420 wireless subscribers, up by 5.4% from the same period last year.
"Our results for the third quarter of 2010 are in line with what we expected," said CEO Pierre Blouin, in a statement. "MTS in Manitoba produced another quarter of solid operating results. The total number of customers using our innovative bundled services was up by more than 10%, including strong growth in the number of customers using our four or five product bundles. These improving results, combined with the large number of customers signing up for bundles, have allowed us to maintain our leading market share in a tough competitive environment.”
After launching a targeted investment program this year to expand its national IP fibre network, Allstream won 38 new IP contracts in the third quarter of 2010. The company also achieved an additional 65 IP contracts in the expanded Alsltream IP co-location footprint.
"While most of our future IP revenue growth will come from our existing 2,000 fibre-fed multi-tenant buildings, our targeted investment program demonstrates that we can drive additional high-margin on-net IP revenues for what are really modest investments”, said Allstream president Dean Prevost.
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