Shaw, Cogeco boost telephony, broadband bases

During their respective fiscal fourth quarters ended 31 August 2007, Canadian cablecos Shaw Communications and Cogeco Cable signed up over 62,000 net new cable telephony customers and 42,000 net new high speed cable modem internet users between them. Shaw’s Digital Phone subscriber base grew by 41,604 to 385,357 in the quarter, whilst its broadband internet customers increased by 29,857 to 1,451,756. Cogeco Cable’s telephony users rose by 21,173 in the same period to 143,636, and its signed up 12,363 new high speed internet subscribers to reach a total of 415,836. Shaw provides cable services in British Colombia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario; its basic cable TV subscribers decreased by 2,057 in the three months to the end of August, to 2,226,841. Cogeco’s network covers Ontario and Quebec, where it has 849,157 basic cable TV subscribers (down by 2,627 in its fiscal fourth quarter).