Bell's Q2 earnings: Profit slipped, net earnings fell, but wireless performed well

BCE Inc. reported its second-quarter earnings today, in line with analyst expectations and without any nasty surprises.

Profit dipped slightly (2.5 percent) and net earnings dropped by $15 million from the same quarter last year. But revenue increased from $4.4 billion to $5 billion thanks to the addition of 94,000 new wireless subscribers, many of them smartphone users with data plans.

38 percent of the company's wireless subscriber base is now on smartphones. This is good penetration thus far, and also leaves plenty of users left to convert to smartphones with data plans.

Bell lost 60,000 pre-paid customers, though, largely to startups Wind Mobile, Public Mobile, and Mobilicity, whose discount offerings undercut the Big Three's cheaper plans and phones.

The telco's average revenue per user actually dipped 1 percent, even though analysts expected it to rise like Rogers' did due to data plan growth.