Telus and Bell Make More Than Twice as Much Money per Wireless Customer Than Wind Mobile

Several Canadian telcos today reported their second-quarter results today.

Startup carrier Wind Mobile gained just under 19,000 subscribers, bringing its total customer base to 620,000—up 36% from the same quarter last year. The company’s average revenue per user rose 2% over last year to $27.90.

Bell lost more than 52,000 prepaid subscribers but gained nearly 97,000 postpaid subscribers, bringing its total wireless customer base to 7.7 million. Its blended ARPU rose almost 3% to $56.85—more than double that of Wind’s.

Telus, who also posted its Q2 2013 earnings today, fared well. The company gained 100,000 postpaid wireless subscribers, matching Bell’s total of 7.7 million wireless customers. Telus’ ARPU is even higher than Bell’s at more than $61.

Despite wildly profitable quarters, however, both Telus and Bell used their earnings reports to whine about Verizon’s looming entry into Canada.

“This entry could impact the competitive wireless landscape in Canada for the existing providers, impact the dynamics and cost of the spectrum auction and potentially impact future pricing and costs in the Canadian wireless industry,” writes Telus, warning investors that Verizon could bring real competition into Canada’s wireless oligarchy.

“Bell is urging the federal government to close the loopholes in new wireless regulations that favour major US wireless carriers like Verizon Communications,” stated Bell.