Telus CEO declines to comment on Rogers' network outage as net income soars

Telus Corp. saw its net income soar by 45 per cent in its most recent quarter as the company nabbed more mobile phone and internet customers.

The Vancouver telecommunications firm revealed Friday that it swung to a net income of $498 million in its second quarter, up from $344 million in the same period last year.

 The earnings for the period ending June 30 amounted to 34 cents per share, up 36 per cent from 25 cents per share.

"The hallmark of our organization pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, post the pandemic or any other exogenous event or any other industry development that happened is going to be consistency and excellence in execution,'' said chief executive Darren Entwistle on an earnings call.

Questions over network reliability

Entwistle declined to comment on the July 8 Rogers Communications Inc. outage that cut off services for millions of customers across Canada but said that Telus is focused on keeping its own operations running well.

"The focus of this organization is leveraging the strength of our network performance.''

The earnings release and news of the shareholders' approval comes after the telecommunications sector began facing questions about the reliability and interconnectedness of their networks following a July service outage from rival Rogers Communications Inc. that affected millions of Canadians and knocked out access to some health-care, law enforcement and banking services.

In July, Telus customers in northern B.C. experienced a prolonged outage as the result of a beaver chewing through a tree, which damaged several telephone poles and fibre cables.

The telecommunications giants along with counterpart BCE Inc. have now been tasked with developing a backup plan to mitigate the impact of future outages and other emergency situations.

Rise in new customers

On an adjusted basis, Telus reported a $422-million profit in the quarter, up more than 21 per cent from $348 million during the same period in 2021.

Its revenue reached $4.4 billion in the second quarter, up seven per cent from $4.1 billion a year ago.

"In the second quarter, the Telus team once again demonstrated continued execution excellence, characterized by the consistent combination of industry-leading customer growth, resulting in strong operational and financial results across our business,'' said Entwistle in a news release.

"Our robust performance reflects the potency of our globally leading broadband networks and customer-centric culture, which enabled record second quarter total customer additions of 247,000.''

Those additions included 93,000 net new mobile phone subscribers and 34,000 net new internet service customers in the quarter.

Company acquires HR firm

The revenue flowed in during the same quarter that Telus announced it will buy LifeWorks Inc., an HR firm formerly known as Morneau Shepell.

LifeWorks helps companies with employee and family assistance plans, absence management, pension and benefits administration and retirement planning.

The company was valued at $2.9 billion including debt and was meant to help Telus push further into employee wellness and health care services. Telus Health offers virtual care and provides patients access to digital pharmacy options, home health monitoring and electronic health records.

The deal was approved by shareholders Thursday, Entwistle said.