Bell Canada’s turnover creeps up 0.3%

Quadruple-play national operator Bell Canada has reported a slight year-on-year increase in its first-quarter revenues, which grew by 0.3% to CAD4.348 billion (USD4.334 billion) in the three months ended 31 March 2013, driven by an increase in service revenues of 1.3%, reflecting growth in wireless, TV, internet, media and business services such as data hosting and cloud computing. EBITDA increased 2.1% to CAD1.641 billion, driven by EBITDA growth of 11.6% at Bell’s mobile division and 21.0% at Bell Media, moderated by a 4.5% decline in wireline EBITDA. Bell Canada’s consolidated EBITDA margin expanded to 37.7% in Q1 2013 from 37.1% in 1Q12, due to strong wireless revenue flow-through, diminishing wireline voice erosion, subsiding wireline costs related to the growth of Bell’s ‘Fibe TV’ IPTV customer base, and continued wireline operating cost savings.