Shaw Communications, Canada’s second largest cableco, has announced its fiscal second quarter results, which saw customer growth across all its service areas. In the November-February period cable broadband internet customers increased by 40,694 to 1.389 million, and local telephony subscribers rose by 41,721 to 292,625, whilst the basic cable TV subscriber base reached 2.22 million, up by 6,625. The rollout of Shaw’s Digital Phone local telephony service continued during the quarter, and is now available to approximately 2.6 million homes, representing over 75% of homes passed. In the period, the Digital Phone footprint was expanded to include Kelowna, Kamloops and Penticton, all in British Columbia, as well as Fort Saskatchewan and Canmore, both in Alberta. Most recently, the service was rolled out to Abbotsford and Chilliwack, British Columbia.
Shaw’s CEO Jim Shaw said late last week that it is unlikely that his company will participate in the upcoming wireless spectrum auction planned for early 2008, as he does not think it stands a realistic chance of turning itself into a major competitor to the established nationwide cellular operators Bell, Rogers and TELUS. If Shaw does take part in the auction, it would probably only be to pick up spectrum it could resell to others, Mr Shaw said.