Rogers Communications, a leading telecom operator in Canada, announced its operating results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018.
Total revenue of Rogers Communications increased 3 percent C$3,769 million, driven by wireless service revenue growth of 5 percent.

Rogers Communications generated C$2,331 million (+6 percent) from wireless business and C$983 million (+1 percent) from cable business in Q3 2018.

Rogers Communications said growth in wireless revenue was due to its balanced approach to monetize the demand for data along with a disciplined approach around subscriber base management. Wireless equipment revenue grew 11 percent driven by increased hardware upgrades.

Rogers Communications’ cable revenue rose 1 percent due to 8 percent growth in Internet revenue. The marginal growth was despite Rogers Communications adding  35,000 Internet connections in Q3.

Media revenue decreased 5 percent as a result of lower revenue at the Toronto Blue Jays.

Rogers Communications posted Adjusted EBITDA of $1,620 million (+8 percent) with wireless business contributing $1,099 million (+8 percent), cable $490 million (+4 percent) and media $73 million (+20 percent).

Rogers Communications said the increase in adjusted EBITDA by 8 percent was driven by wireless adjusted EBITDA growth of 8 percent, with a combination of strong growth in wireless revenue and progress on cost efficiency mandate, which led to a margin of 47.1 percent, up 90 basis points from last year.

Capex

Rogers Communications said its Capex was $700 million (+6 percent) with the telecom operator spending $277 (+26 percent) in wireless, $358 (+1 percent) in cable and $18 million in media business.

The increase in capital expenditures in wireless was due to investments made to upgrade its wireless network to deliver better performance for customers.

“We have augmented our existing LTE network with 4.5G technology investments that are also 5G-ready,” Rogers Communications said.

Rogers Communications’ cable business has made investment for buying customer premise equipment, for the development of Ignite TV product and hybrid fibre-coaxial infrastructure with additional fibre deployments and further DOCSIS technology enhancements.

“We are pleased with our progress and confident in the future of this roadmap. Given our strong year to date performance, we are raising our full-year guidance,” said Joe Natale, president and chief executive officer of Rogers Communications.