Telus to rely heavily on mobile in 2011

Canadian telecommunications provider Telus Corp. (TU) said it expects its 2011 financial success to hinge increasingly on its mobile operations.
Telus said that it expects its mobile operations, which is currently the third-largest in the country, to post between $5.2 billion and $5.35 billion in revenues for the year, or a 3.5% to 6.5% increase compared with its 2010 guidance. This increase is expected to outweigh the between 2% drop or 2% increase in wireline revenue targets compared with 2010 guidance.
In addition, Telus said it expects wireless earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to increase between 6% and 11% compared with 2010 guidance compared with a flat to 6% drop in wireline EBITDA over the same time frame.
Telus said that it expects capital expenditures across the company to remain consistent with the $1.7 billion it spent in 2010. For its mobile operations, the company said it plans to increase network capacity and deploy HSPA+ Dual-Carrier technology that will support download speeds of up to 42 megabits per second on its way to eventually deploying LTE technology.
Telus announced in 2008 plans to install HSPA-based services across its network on its way to deploying LTE technology. The new networks are currently running alongside the carrier’s CDMA and iDEN technology.
“Next year’s results are expected to benefit from the continuation of healthy wireless subscriber loading and accelerating adoption of wireless data services, as well as significantly reduced financing costs due to $2 billion in successful debt financings in the last 12 months at significantly lower interest rates,” explained Robert McFarlane, EVP and CFO at Telus.
Across the country’s mobile segment, Telus said it expects wireless penetration to increase as much as five percentage points due to increased competition, accelerated adoption of smart phones and data applications and the emergence of new mobile device segments.