BCE Unit Increases Fibe Internet Speed to 1.5 Gbps in Canada

BCE Inc. BCE recently announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bell Canada, has increased its Fibe Internet access speed to 1.5 Gbps, the fastest access speed to the households in Canada.

At present, the unlimited Fibe 1.5 Gbps service is available in Ontario and the company plans to launch the service in Québec, the Atlantic provinces and Manitoba. Supported by the company’s fibre to the premises (FTTP) network, the enhanced internet service is capable of providing download speeds of up to 1.5 Gbps and uploads of up to 940 Mbps.

Our Take

The company’s wireless segment is expected to benefit from its post-paid business as it continues to enjoy solid subscriber addition. Significant investments in network coverage, customer retention, lucrative data plans and the launch of new handsets along with the provision of net protection will drive customer addition. In the past six months, the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has outperformed the industry it belongs to. The stock has lost 2.0% compared with the industry’s decline of 5.4% in the period.

 

Moreover, the company is likely to benefit from robust activities in the wireless business, strong subscriber addition, drop in churn rates and focus on technology upgrades. It continues to focus on six strategic areas including investment in broadband network and services, accelerating wireless services, leveraging wireline momentum, expanding media coverage, improving customer service and achieving a competitive cost structure. These initiatives are expected to generate higher revenue per user and attract new customers.

However, the company’s local line access for traditional telephony service continues to face a decline among large customers due to higher wireless substitution and migration to IP-based services. This is reflected by persistent erosion in overall network access services on a year-over-year basis, hurting revenues of the local and long-distance operations.

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks from the same space are Atlantic Power Corporation AT, Ameren Corporation AEE and Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. TDS. While Atlantic Power sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Ameren Corporation and Telephone and Data Systems carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Atlantic Power exceeded estimates twice in the preceding four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 7.24%.

Ameren Corporation surpassed estimates thrice in the trailing four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 7.69%.

Telephone and Data Systems outpaced estimates twice in the preceding four quarters with an average earnings surprise of 88.80%.

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