Telus Quarter 2 Ups and Downs 2007

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Telus reported quarter 2 2007 revenues up 4% year-over-year due to growth in wireless and data, but that its earnings for the second quarter were impacted by wireless number portability and the bankruptcy of Amp’d Mobile.

Telus said customer acquisition and retention costs increased by about $44.6 million due to number portability, and that another factor affecting its performance was the introduction of a new billing and client care system in Alberta. Telus also said its profits were affected by it venture investment and business with Amp’d Mobile.

Telus detailed its expenses related to Amp’d Mobile as: a pre-tax write-off of $11.2 million in equity investment, as well as pre-tax adjustments of about $4.7 million for accelerated depreciation and about $1.9 million in operations expenses, for a total of $17.8 million.

Overall, Telus reported that its net profits were down 29% to $240 million year-over-year due to a large positive tax adjustment received in the second quarter of 2006; earnings per share took a 26% hit.

Wireless net subscriber additions were up 3.5% year-over-year to 128,200 custoemrs, with postpaid growth accounting for 99,200 customers and prepaid gaining 29,000 customers. Wireless revenues increased 11% compared with the second quarter of 2006, to around $997 million. The carrier’s average revenue per user bumped up slightly, from $59.98 in the second quarter of 2006 to $60.44 this year. Data ARPU jumped 48% to $6.25, which the company noted “more than offset the ongoing decline in voice ARPU.”

Blended churn did see an uptick, which the carrier said was due to number portability. Churn increased from 1.3% a year ago to 1.45% during this year’s second quarter. However, Telus noted that its postpaid churn remained low at 1.07%.

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