Telus profit jumps on smartphone growth

(Reuters) - Telus Corp, Canada's third-largest wireless provider, reported a 30 percent jump in quarterly net profit as more consumers signed up for smartphones and its new Internet-based television service gained traction.

Shares of the Vancouver-based company rose after it reported net profit of C$326 million ($321.9 million), or C$1 a share, up from C$251 million, or 78 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.

Adjusting for three one-time items, net income rose 12 percent in the quarter, Telus said.

Revenue rose nearly 7 percent to C$2.62 billion, while wireless data revenue rose 53 percent.

Analysts had on average expected Telus to post adjusted earnings of 97 Canadian cents a share on revenue of C$2.60 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Telus added 133,000 lucrative post-paid wireless subscribers, who typically use a smartphone and spend around three times as much as a pre-paid customer. The company lost 19,000 more value-conscious pre-paid users, who have been lured by aggressive pricing from several newer entrants.

By comparison, market leader Rogers Communications said last week it added 74,000 post-paid subscribers and 87,000 pre-paid users in the quarter, while Bell added 126,854 customers on contract and lost 41,105 pre-paid users.

Telus said the cost of acquiring a postpaid subscriber jumped 17 percent to C$397, as the company paid higher subsidies to support smartphone sales.

Telus added 50,000 television subscribers in the quarter on the back of the Internet-based TV service Optik it launched last year.

Telus got a boost in its battle against Calgary-based cable company Shaw Communications for Internet and television consumers in Western Canada when Shaw walked away from a plan to launch a wireless telephone network in September.

The decision means Shaw lacks the fourth leg of a bundled offering that includes home phone, Internet and television.

But Telus still has a long way to go. It can now boast more than 450,000 television subscribers, compared to more than 2 million users of Shaw's basic cable service.

Telus said it would raise its dividend for the second time this year, to 58 Canadian cents a quarter, in line with its goal of increasing its payout by 10 percent a year.

Shares of Telus rose 52 Canadian cents to C$54.50 in early trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($1 = 1.013 Canadian Dollars)

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto and Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore)