TELUS’s third quarter earnings report shows an increase of 113,000 postpaid subscribers – up 7,000 from the same time last year – as they close in on almost 8 million subscribers…88-percent are postpaid with only 12-percent prepaid. Their churn is the lowest in the country – only .90-percent on postpaid accounts and a combined 1.25-percent when you factor in prepaid accounts. This is TELUS’s record fifth consecutive quarter with a postpaid churn rate of less than 1-percent, so a lot of customers are happy with TELUS and sticking with them. According to a statement, this “reflects the Company’s successful customers first service approach, investments in customer retention as well as a greater proportion of postpaid clients in TELUS’ subscriber base.”
TELUS’s revenues of $3.03 billion, due to strong wireless results, was up 5.4-percent over the same period last year, although net income was down over last year to $355 million. With 80-percent of their customers now using a smartphone, the blended (post and prepaid) Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) rose to $64.51 and bested both Bell and Rogers’ in this category. TELUS had seen a steady increase in both smartphone users and their ARPU as more customers are using more data as they search the web, download movies, videos and games. Q3 in 2012 saw 63-percent smartphones users and an ARPU of $61.42 – Q3 in 2013 saw 75-percent of subscribers with smartphones and an ARPU of $62.49 – and now we have 80-percent and $64.51.
I thought an interesting figure that the wireless companies track – Lifetime Revenue Per Subscriber – and here again TELUS is the industry leader with $5,161 in the Q3 2014, up from $4,595 a year ago and $4,265 from the Q3 2012. All of this has made for a strong year for TELUS in their wireless division with key highlights – Industry leading postpaid wireless subscriber growth – Lowest postpaid churn in North America – Strong growth in industry-leading ARPU – Industry-leading and expanding lifetime revenue per customer – Most rapidly growing wireline business in Canada – and Strong EBITDA performance and revenue growth in both wireless and wireline.
In Canada’s annual report by the Commission for Complaints for Telecommunications (CCTS), of the Big Three, TELUS was way down on the list with complaints filed, which were mostly about billing errors. Bell had 3,651 complaints filed or 32.20-percent, Rodgers had 2,379 or 20.98-percentage rate and TELUS had only 653 complaints or a 5.76-percent – quite a drop compared to the others. Please hit us up on our Google+ Page and let us know if you are satisfied with TELUS as your carrier…as always, we would love to hear from you.