Canadian telco Rogers Communications has published its financial results for the third quarter to 30 September 2006, reporting consolidated revenue growth of 14.7% year-on-year to CAD2.35 billion (USD2.09 billion), operating profits of CAD784 million (up 33.1%), and net income of CAD154 million, up from CAD48.9 million in September 2005. Rogers Wireless added 203,000 subscribers in the quarter to lift its total to 6.553 million, including 171,200 post-paid subscribers. The company says the proportion of people on contracts rather than pre-paid packages now stands at 79.6%, up marginally on the previous quarter. Wireless post-paid subscriber monthly churn was 1.3% versus 1.5% in the third quarter of 2005, while post-paid monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 5.3% in the quarter to CAD70.37. The company said the ARPU increase reflected a 47.9% rise in data revenues, which represented 10.5% of total wireless network revenue in the quarter, as well as continued growth in roaming and other optional voice services.
In the wireline segment, Rogers reported gains on the back of increases in voice-over-cable telephony subscribers. It ended the quarter with more than 270,800 residential voice-over-cable telephony subscriber lines, with net additions of 106,100 during the quarter, of which approximately 14,400 were migrations from its circuit-switched network. The telco says its Rogers Home Phone (RHP) cable telephony service is now available to approximately 90% of cable homes passed. The combined number of local telephony lines on both the cable telephony and circuit-switched platforms stood at 823,100 by 30 September. The Group’s Cable and Internet division reported basic cable subscriber gains of 12,600 in the quarter, while the number of digital cable households increased by 62,200 to 1,064,400. In addition, the unit reported 1.25 million residential high speed internet subscribers, up 51,800 quarter-on-quarter, while pay-on-demand views increased 19.2% year-over-year to 1,721,000.