Today TELUS flipped the switch on for their LTE network, a major accomplishment for Canada’s third largest wireless carrier… but they’re actually somewhat close in becoming Canada’s 2nd largest. Yesterday Bell reported their 2011 results and ended with 7,427,482 wireless subscribers. Today, TELUS declared their Q4 2011 and full year numbers and reported an increase in Q4 net subscribers by 129,000 – 148,000 Postpaid (35.8% increase over Q4 2010) and a decline of 19,000 Prepaid customers. This brings TELUS’ 2011 wireless subscriber base to 7,340,000. Yes, it’ll take a great deal of work to become 2nd, but they’re only 87,483 subs away. However, a bit of perspective, Bell has been gunning at a rate of approximately 130,000 subs a quarter. 2012 will be more fierce as all the big 3 will be pushing smartphones, tablets and LTE.
Other stats from TELUS’ earnings shows that Q4 APRU (Average Revenue Per User) was $59.08, up 1% from Q4 2010. ARPU for the year 2011 was $59.10, up 2.5%. In addition, seems like people are talking less. The average monthly minutes of use per subscriber was 334 in Q4, representing a decline 5.1% from Q4 2010. Overall voice minutes fell 8% in 2011 to 332 per user. Voice revenue in 2011 was $3,326 billion, a decline of 4.1%… but data revenue surged a whopping 47.1% in 2011 to reach $1,678 billion (up from $1,141 billion). The report stated that the increase was due to “subscriber growth and strength in smartphone service revenues and text messaging driven by increased smartphone penetration, increased adoption of data plans, growth in mobile Internet connection devices and tablets, increased rates for pay-per-use text messaging, as well as higher data roaming volumes partly offset by lower roaming rates.”
How about the Smartphone adoption? Well, “Smartphones represented 74% and 66% of postpaid gross additions, respectively, in the fourth quarter and full year of 2011, as compared to 46% and 37%, respectively, in the fourth quarter and full year of 2010”.
Read the full report here at TELUS
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