We Love Wireless
In the telecom world, it is easy to understand how wireless has captured the
imagination of analysts. After all, there's growth in them thar hills
compared to the fading fortunes of wireline carriers. At a Scotia Capital
conference today, analyst John Henderson said among the reasons he likes
Canadian wireless carriers is the growth of wireless data, which he
describes as a “sustainable long-term trend”. He cited the performance of
Rogers Wireless, which got 6% of its third-quarter revenue from data
services such as e-mail, ringtones, games and text-messaging. Henderson is
bullish about the prospects of data because it only accounts for 5% to 6% of
wireless revenue in Canada, compared with 15% to 20% in other places around
the world.
Another interesting comment by Henderson was his belief the hype over cable
telephony is “overblown”. Even if Shaw Communications takes 12.5% of Telus
Corp.'s local access lines by 2007, Telus would lose less than $100-million
of revenue. This compares with the $1-billion of additional sales Telus is
expected to get from its wireless division within the next three years.
