The chief executive of BCE Inc. says the company is focusing its attention on premium wireless customers even as competitors push deep discounts.
“You saw some pretty aggressive promotions the past two weekends from some of our peers and we decided to sit that out,” CEO Mirko Bibic told analysts during its fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
BCE reported 56,124 net postpaid wireless additions last quarter, down 0.8 per cent from 56,550 a year ago. The company cited a less active market, slowing population growth due to changing immigration policies and a focus on higher-value subscribers as reasons for the dip.
BCE’s mobile phone average revenue per user was $56.72 in the quarter, down 0.8 per cent from a year ago.
It said the decrease was due to “ongoing but abating” competitive pricing pressures and greater discounting, lower data overage revenue from customers subscribing to unlimited or larger capacity data plans, and lower roaming revenue amid Canadian customers’ decreased travel to the United States and adoption of Canada-U.S.-Mexico-International plans.
Customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — was 1.49 per cent, the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement.
Broadly, big telecom players seem to be less willing to compete with smaller brands on deeply discounted phone plans. Rogers Communications Inc. last week said it was focusing on a more balanced approach and remained selective with its offers and promotions despite competitive pricing from peers.
On Thursday, BCE reported fourth-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of $594 million. The profit amounted to 64 cents per share for the quarter, compared with a profit of $461 million or 51 cents per share a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of 63 cents per share, according to data compiled by LSEG Data & Analytics.
On an adjusted basis, BCE said it earned 69 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 79 cents per share a year earlier.
BCE’s revenue edged slightly lower compared with a year ago. Operating revenue totalled $6.40 billion, down from $6.42 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The telecom company said its 2026 guidance is consistent with the three-year financial outlook shared last year, adding that it’s on track to hit its financial targets by 2028.
BCE said it’s expecting revenue growth of one to five per cent year-over-year for 2026.
Bibic said BCE has already accounted for the impact of competitive pricing in its outlook.
“When we came out of Black Friday in November of 2025, we thought it would be possible to show moderate (average revenue per user) growth by Q4 of 2026,” he said.
With competitive pricing from other telecom providers over the last two months however, “it might be more difficult to get there,” Bibic said.
Desjardins analyst Jerome Dubreuil said this year’s outlook “came in modestly below expectations, particularly given management’s stated assumption of improving wireless pricing this year.”
BCE’s streaming platform Crave was a hot commodity last quarter, with subscriptions up 26 per cent from last year to about 4.6 million, following the late-November release of the hit series “Heated Rivalry,” which portrays the lives of two LGBTQ+ hockey players.
“‘Heated Rivalry’ has emerged as a global sensation, generating significant media attention and cultural impact and underscoring the strength of our investment in premium Canadian storytelling,” Bibic said.
He said Bell Media is “off to a strong start” this year, with NFL viewership and the upcoming FIFA World Cup in the summer offering monetization opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX: BCE)
