Rogers announced their Q1 2012 financial results today and for the last three months they stated they experienced their “Second Highest Quarter of Smartphone Activations Ever, Including a 35% Increase in iPhone Activations.” Their customer base is now just over 9.31 million: 7,621,000 Postpaid subs and 1,689,000 Prepaid. Wireless activations and upgrades totaled 642,000 smartphones, again were “predominantly iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices,” which now makes up a whopping 60% of their Postpaid subscriber base.
The prepaid business continues to be less profitable. It’s not specifically noted that Chatr has caused the bleeding, but Rogers says the “increase in the level of churn associated with heightened competitive intensity, particularly at the lower end of the wireless market.” It could be the other new entrants such as WIND Mobile, Mobilicity, Public Mobile and Videotron.
ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is also dropping. This is an industry wide trend. People are using less voice minutes and more data. Rogers blended ARPU fell $2.26 to $57.65. Data revenue increased by 16% to hit $627 million and now making up approximately 39% of network revenue ($1,612b).
Nadir Mohamed, President and CEO of Rogers said “Despite highly competitive markets, particularly impacting both the wireless and cable portions of our business, we continued to leverage our technology leadership to deliver new and innovative products and services while at the same time taking decisive action during the quarter to drive operational efficiencies.”
Source: Rogers
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