In its Q1 financial report, Bell Canada said it was accelerating its fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) rollout. During the first three months of the year, Bell Canada provisioned 386 additional neighborhood fiber nodes, more than all of 2004, for a total of 762. The new access network will support all future services from the company.
Other highlights of the report include:
- Sympatico high-speed Internet added 128,000 customers in Q1, its strongest quarterly increase in the last three years. The high-speed subscriber base increased to over 1.9 million by the end of the quarter, up by approximately 24% over Q1 2004. Subscriptions to Value-Added Services (VAS) such as MSN Premium, Security Services and Home Networking grew by 142,000 - more than double the number a year ago.
- Bell Canada's ExpressVu video service added 29,000 subscribers, giving it 1.5 million in total.
- Consumer segment revenues grew by 1.7%, year over year, to $1.9 billion.
- The company introduced its first consumer VoIP service during Q1.
- Bell Canada reported Q1 revenues of $4.9 billion, up 4.8% and EBITDA of $1.9 billion, up 5.1% when compared to the same period last year. Operating income increased by 5.4% year over year to reach $1.1 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) were $0.51.
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