Bce Stock Rises on $6.1 Billion Revenue as Profit Falls
bce stock opened the quarter with $6.1-billion in revenue, up 4 per cent from a year earlier, while net earnings fell to $667-million. BCE beat analyst expectations for revenue, but the profit line moved the other way as mobile-plan promotions stayed unusually intense across the sector.
Bell Wireless Pressure
$6-billion was the analyst revenue target BCE topped in the first quarter, a small beat that still left the company managing a tougher earnings mix. Mirko Bibic called the wireless segment “unusually competitive” on Wednesday morning, and the company said higher depreciation and amortization helped push net earnings down 2.3 per cent from a year earlier.
17,000 net postpaid mobile additions helped Bell offset 11,900 net prepaid losses, leaving only 5,000 net mobile additions overall. That was better than the 1,000 subscribers Bell lost in the same quarter last year, but average revenue per user for mobile phones declined slightly, showing that growth in customer count did not fully translate into stronger pricing.
Debt, Asset Sales, AI Spending
$37.4-billion in long-term debt sat on BCE’s balance sheet as of March 31, up 7.3 per cent from December. During the quarter, Bell sold its land mobile radio network business to a subsidiary of Motorola Solutions for $675-million and announced an AI data centre in Saskatchewan that it expects to cost $1.7-billion, with construction already under way and purchase orders placed for over 90 per cent of the equipment.
Those moves match Curtis Millen’s description of the company as executing on its three-year plan: “Fundamentally, we’re just executing on the three-year plan that we laid out.” The balance sheet and spending shift point in the same direction, with assets moving out and capital going toward fibre and artificial intelligence businesses.
Media and Canadian Telecom
0.4 per cent media revenue growth helped offset weakness in the Canadian telecom division, alongside higher net earnings from BCE’s U.S. fibre business. Subscriber revenue in media rose 11 per cent, while advertising revenue fell 12 per cent, a split that shows one part of the portfolio still growing even as another depends on less durable ad demand.
43,000 home telephone customers left in the quarter, adding another drag inside the domestic telecom base. BCE maintained its previous guidance and dividend rate, leaving the immediate question for shareholders centered on whether the mix of subscriber gains, asset sales, and AI spending can hold up if wireless pricing stays this tight.
