VANCOUVER – On Thursday Telus reported solid gains in the fourth quarter of 2019, as it announced customer growth of 176,000 net additions, which included wireless net additions of 130,000 and wireline customer additions of 46,000.
The wireline additions broke down as 28,000 Internet, 15,000 TV and 15,000 security net new clients, combined with residential voice line losses of 12,000.
The company added 713,000 net customers in all of 2019, up 21% over 2018.
For the quarter, consolidated operating revenue of $3.9 billion increased by 2.5% over the same period in 2018, driven by growth in wireless network revenue and wireline data services revenue.
Earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 10.8% to $1.4 billion and when excluding restructuring and other costs and non-recurring losses and equity losses related to real estate joint ventures, adjusted EBITDA was up 7.9%.
Q4 net income of $379 million increased by 3% over the same period last year.
Telus also announced it will do a two-for-one share split to shareholders of record on March 13, 2020.
“Both 2019 and the fourth quarter were characterized by profitable growth, with a thoughtful balance between continuing to meaningfully grow our customer base and enhancing profitability,” said president and CEO Darren Entwistle, in the press release.
Please click here for more on Telus’ fiscal 2019.
However, the bigger news came a bit later in the day Thursday when chief financial officer Doug French told the Financial Post the company intends to move ahead this year on its 5G network upgrade with Huawei, which of course is under fire globally because of what the U.S. government thinks of the big tech supplier and its ties to the Chinese government.
The U.S. wants its allies to shun the supplier, but most recently, the U.K. said Huawei gear can be used outside the core of the networks. Canada has yet to make public any decision on Huawei.
Our federal government has het to decide whether Canadian cellcos can deploy Huawei technology in their next generation networks, but this Telus statement just might make the government finally announced its decision.
Please click here for that FP report.
