TELUS is having a good year, so far, according to their first quarter earnings report for 2015. This was in no small part due to their excellent wireless division performance, in which wireless revenues increased by $92 million – up 6.4-percent to $1.54 billion when compared to the first quarter of 2014. Contributing to all of this was a 19-percent increase in data revenue, increase in customer growth, the increased adoption of the higher-rate two-year plans, higher data usage due to increase number of smartphones, increased data roaming and expansion of their LTE coverage. The decision by customers to drop the use of featured phones and their increased adoption to smartphones has contributed greatly to their earnings, as these subscribers tend to use more data as they surf the web.
Customer service and happiness, always a large part of how a company is doing is reflected in TELUS’ churn rate – the annual percentage rate at which customers stop subscribing to a service – declined 8 basis points from last year at this same time to .91 percent and the monthly churn rate was down 22 basis points to reach 1.28-percent. This shows TELUS’ ability to keep customers happy and it reflects in their retention ability and is the lowest of the the Big Three.
A couple other areas that investors look for growth were also up with TELUS. Their blended ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) – how much they make off of each subscriber – increased by 3.2-percent to $62.34. This represents TELUS’ eighteenth consecutive quarter, year-over-year growth. The EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) increased by 8-percent or $57 million to $750 million due to revenue growth and the integration of Public Mobile. This was offset by higher retention costs and higher customer service costs. The lucrative postpaid customers now make up 86% of its user base, leaving 14-percent as prepaid customers.
Darren Entwistle, TELUS Executive Chair said, “…through the first four months of 2015, TELUS has returned $664 million to shareholders, building on the more than $3.4 billion returned over the prior two years.”
TELUS President and CEO Joe Natale said, “Our persistent focus on customer service continues to distinguish TELUS from the competition and provide customers with a clear choice. Once again we demonstrated the impact strong customer loyalty can have on financial performance, as both our wireless and wireline operations experienced revenue and customer growth.