Telus reported its Q2 2016 figures today, and all seems to be well – the subscriber numbers of 8.4 million keep it at the second largest telecom in Canada. Their consolidated operating revenue grew 1.5% to $3.1 billion year-over-year. Subscriber additions in both wireless and wireline and an increase in data revenue help spur on the growth. Considering only wireless revenues, there was a total of $1.6 billion during the quarter, which is an increase of 2.6% over the same quarter last year.
Darren Entwistle, President, and CEO of Telus is proud of their consistent track record – since 2004 to July 2016, Telus has returned $13.3 billion to shareholders with $8.2 billion of that in dividends and $5.2 billion in stock options – representing $22 per share. Doug French, TELUS Executive Vice President, and CFO believes their second quarter results are their commitment to delivering growth and efficiency, but mostly by putting their customers first. He believes that Telus is making the necessary network investments to drive customer satisfaction – better LTE service and better sounding calls.
During the quarter, Telus attracted 92,000 net wireless postpaid subscribers, high-speed Internet, and TV customers. Of the total additions, they had 61,000 wireless postpaid customers, 18,000 high-speed internet subscribers, and 13,000 TV customers – many of us forget the Telus also provides these services as well mobile services. Telus’ total wireless subscriber base is up 0.9% from a year ago and total 8.4 million with a 2.1% increase in postpaid customers to 7.4 million. The high-speed internet connections grew 6.4% to 1.6 million users, and TV subscribers went up by 7.9% to over 1 million.
Telus’ wireless data revenue growth was driven by a combination of subscriber growth, more customers taking a two-year plan, more postpaid customers, and continued growth in data usage because of the increase in smartphones, increase in LTE network, and increase in streaming applications. Their wireline growth was caused by growth in their business customers and increase in their TV subscriber growth.
Telus is working hard on its LTE infrastructure that now reaches 85% of the Canadian population, although they are working on expanding it even more. Telus is also looking into the future and is working on 5G – next generation of LTE. We will probably not see 5G until 2017, but it will be a huge investment in equipment and deployment will be difficult. The sooner Telus starts working on 5G, the better prepared they will be for a smooth transition and prepared for the Internet of Things (IoT.)