Bell Aliant’s revenues stagnate on wireline decline

Bell Aliant has reported a slight drop year-on-year in third-quarter revenues to CAD700 million (USD698 million), down from CAD704 million a year earlier, which it blamed on the continuing loss of wireline telephony customers to competitors in its Atlantic Canada operating region. With a focus on next-generation services aimed at offsetting the losses from its traditional PSTN services, Bell Aliant said it now expects to reach 450,000 homes and businesses with its direct fibre access triple-play network by the end of 2011, up from a prior estimate of 430,000, while also announcing that it will surpass a goal of 600,000 premises connected by the end of 2012. It has set an eventual target of between 900,000 to one million homes and businesses passed by the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network. The full-service telco turned around a net loss of CAD400,000 in the third quarter of 2010 to post a net profit of CAD76 million in July-September 2011, including a CAD27 million restructuring charge related to a voluntary retirement offer.