Total customer connections across Telus’ fixed, wireless, internet and TV divisions increased by 3.9% year-on-year to 12.73 million at the end of 2011. Wireless net additions of 129,000 in October-December 2011 – higher by 8.4% compared to net adds in Q4 2010 – included 148,000 new post-paid subscribers and a net loss of 19,000 pre-paid subscribers, as smartphone adoption continued to accelerate, causing quarterly wireless data revenue to increase by 43% to CAD466 million. Data ARPU increased by 35% to CAD21.65, and smartphones represented 74% of post-paid gross additions in the fourth quarter, as compared to 46% a year earlier. As of end-December 2011 smartphone subscribers represented 53% of the post-paid subscriber base, compared to 33% at end-2010. This increase helped more than offset declining wireless voice revenues, resulting in blended ARPU growth of 1% – the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Total wireless subscribers grew by 5.3% year-on-year to 7.34 million at end-December 2011.
In the wireline segment, Telus added 56,000 TV customers in 4Q11 to bring its total subscriber base to 509,000, and attracted 24,000 new high speed internet subscribers in the same period, helping drive wireline data revenue growth of 15%.
