Bell Aliant (Toronto: BA-UN.TO ) reported a 1 percent drop in second quarter 2011 revenues of CAD 693 million. However, strong numbers in the growth of its IPTV and broadband sectors led it to boost its full fiscal year’s guidance. Its revised fiscal projection is now between CAD 2.72 billion and CAD 2.78 billion. Its previous EBITDA figures remain unchanged.
 

Much of the dip in Bell Aliant’s figures came from declining local and long-distance voice call subscribers. Other Canadian and US telcos reflect the same pattern of deteriorating voice call subscriber volumes

According to Bell Aliant’s president and CEO, Karen Sherrif, “The growth rates of our Internet and TV revenues have increased while the rates of decline in our traditional voice and data services have slowed. Our significant investment in a world-class fibre-to-the-home network is contributing to this improvement and gives us confidence that we are on the right path to returning to overall revenue growth.”

According to the company’s key metrics, access line losses declined by 4 percent for local calling and 2.7 percent for long distance calls However, broadband access sales continue to sell briskly for Bell Aliant. Although legacy DSL sales volume continues to decline, newer technology access services such as FiberOp Fiber to the Home (FFTH) attracted a higher volume. This reflects a growing market preference switch to faster broadband technologies. Another growth segment is Aliant’s IPTV video service which racked up 5000 new customers during the quarter. Aliant’s key challenge is to keep up its FTTH and IPTV momentum as it migrates its customers from old service mixes to these newer ones.