BCE Q1 2025 Earnings Report

BCE EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.48
• Consensus EPS: $0.44
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.04
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.75

BCE Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $4.12 billion
• Expected Revenue: $5.92 billion
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$1.80 billion
• YoY Revenue Growth: -1.30%

BCE Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 5/8/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, May 8, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:00AM ET

BCE (NYSE:BCE) Inc. (NYSE:BCE), formerly Bell Canada Enterprises, is one of Canada’s largest communications and media companies. The company traces its roots to the founding of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada in 1880 and was reorganized as BCE in 1983 to serve as the holding company for its telecommunications and media assets. Through its subsidiaries, BCE delivers a wide range of digital communication solutions across the country.

The company’s core business activities include wireline and wireless voice services, high-speed internet access, and television offerings under brands such as Bell Fibe TV and Bell Satellite TV. BCE also provides enterprise solutions—spanning data networking, cloud computing and cybersecurity—to government and business customers. In recent years, the company has invested heavily in 5G rollout and fibre-to-the-home infrastructure to support Canada’s growing demand for bandwidth.

BCE’s Bell Media division owns and operates multiple television channels, radio stations and digital media properties, including CTV, TSN and Crave. This media footprint enables BCE to integrate content creation and distribution, while also offering advertising and streaming services. The company continues to pursue strategic partnerships and acquisitions to expand its content library and reach on multiple platforms.

Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, BCE serves customers coast-to-coast through a network of regional offices and retail locations. The company is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Mirko Bibic, who has overseen initiatives to modernize BCE’s network infrastructure and enhance customer experience. BCE remains focused on driving digital transformation for Canadian consumers and businesses alike.

BCE Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Strategic partnership with PSP Investments: BCE announced a long-term joint venture where PSP will fund US fiber expansion with over $1.5 billion of equity, allowing BCE to retain 49% ownership and improve free cash flow by more than $1 billion over 2026–2028.
• Dividend reduction: The board cut the annualized common share dividend from $3.99 to $1.75 effective July to accelerate deleveraging toward a 3.5× EBITDA ratio by end-2027 and 3.0× longer term, which may concern income-focused investors.
• Robust Canadian fiber footprint: BCE now covers over 7.8 million premises with fiber, has doubled its fiber customer base to 3 million with more than 60% on gigabit speeds, and achieves nearly half of new broadband adds where fiber is available.
• First-quarter financials: Q1 adjusted EBITDA was stable with a 40 bp margin improvement, service revenues declined 1.3% amid competitive pressures, capital expenditures fell by $273 million, and free cash flow rose by $713 million year-over-year.
• Upsized cost savings target: BCE’s transformation program has delivered $500 million in savings to date and the company raised its total cost reduction goal to $1.5 billion by the end of 2028, underpinning margin and free cash flow growth.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the BCE Q1 twenty twenty five Results Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Richard Benjin. Please go ahead, Mr. Benjin.

[Richard Bengian, Director of IR at BCE]

Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. With me here today are Mirko Bibic, BCE's President and CEO and our CFO, Curtis Millen. You can find all our Q1 disclosure documents on the Investor Relations page of the bce.ca website, which we posted earlier this morning. Have a lot of material to get through on this call.

[Richard Bengian, Director of IR at BCE]

However, before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to our safe harbor statement on Slide two, reminding you that today's slide presentation and remarks made during the call will include forward looking information and therefore are subject to risks and uncertainties. Results could differ materially. We disclaim any obligation to update forward looking statements except as required by law. Please refer to our publicly filed documents for more details on assumptions and risks. With that out of the way, I'll turn the call over to Mirko.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Thank you, Richard, and good morning, everyone. I shared in February our strategic and operational road map that will guide our actions for 2025 and beyond, focusing on our customers and on creating value for shareholders. We have a clear strategy for growth, and that's anchored in four key priority areas, putting the customers first, providing the best Internet and wireless networks and services, unlocking potential for businesses with technology solutions, and building a digital and media content powerhouse. Moreover, we will continue to modernize and simplify how we do business and how we operate. And before providing an update on our progress against each of these, I wanna call out two key and very material developments.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

This morning, we announced a major partnership with PSP Investments, one of Canada's largest pension investment managers with approximately $265,000,000,000 in net assets. PSP is an extremely experienced telecom investor. It will be helping us fund the expansion of our US business, which could see a commitment in excess of $1,500,000,000 This will significantly de risk our future funding requirements and bring support for our US fiber growth strategy while still allowing us to proceed with our deleveraging plans. I'll describe our partnership in more detail in just a few minutes. Secondly, given the significant changes in our economic and operating environments that have occurred since the fall of twenty twenty four, our board has established the annualized dividend per VC common share at a dollar $75 per share from $3.99 per share.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

This change will be effective with the July dividend payment. This will help us achieve more quickly our near term deleveraging target of 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA by the end of twenty twenty seven, as well as our longer term target of three point zero times. Both of these developments are consistent with our strategy to optimize the balance sheet, invest for growth, and enhance total shareholder returns. Now on to the four priorities. As you see on slide four, we're putting customers first as our top priority.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Earlier this year, we became the first Canadian telecom company to name a dedicated chief customer experience officer. Since taking on this role, Badir Hassan has been hard at work on improving the entire customer experience, and that's grounded in four key commitments that define service excellence from a customer's point of view and our path towards making it easy to do business with Bell. Our objective is to put our customers at the heart of every interaction with us. We know their time is valuable. That's why we're prioritizing self serve tools to help customers get the support they need whenever they need it, including twenty four seven AI powered virtual assistance while keeping our phone lines free for more complex cases or people who prefer to speak to someone directly.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

We've also introduced a new intuitive digital bill, and we're improving the tools available to our representatives so that no matter how customers interact with us, our team has access to the same up to date information. And because we know that life does not wait, we're enhancing our callback experience so that our team can follow-up without customers having to sit on hold. This approach will materially improve customer satisfaction, churn, and ultimately customer lifetime value and financial performance. Turning to slide five now. The next key priority is to provide the best fiber and the best five g networks.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Internet and wireless, as you all know, are our largest businesses and most important revenue drivers. We've made significant investments over the past several years in fiber and five g, which continue to receive third party recognition for delivering the fastest download and upload speeds, lowest latency, robust security, and standout reliability and resiliency. Now over to slide six. I know I say this often, but I'm gonna say it again. Fiber is the future.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

It's clearly the superior technology, and customers know it. Fiber gives us a sustainable advantage that will last for decades. Since 2020, when we made the decision to accelerate fiber deployment, we've increased our total footprint by more than 50%. We have the largest fiber footprint in Canada at more than 7,800,000 households and business locations, and it's clear that our strategic investment is paying off. We more than doubled our Internet customer base on fiber to 3,000,000, and over 60% of these customers are taking gigabit plus speeds.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

We doubled our fiber revenue over the same period. Where we have fiber, our market share has grown 18% to 48%. Where we've had fiber for a longer time, our market share is above 50%. And if you look at our numbers quarter after quarter, we consistently capture the majority of new broadband additions with fiber. Moreover, where we have fiber, our mobility and Internet bundled sales continue to grow and now comprise more than 50% of our total residential households.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Our residential fiber penetration rate is approximately 44% across our entire footprint. That's a blended figure that comprises older tenured and more recently deployed markets. In our oldest tenured markets, penetration is at 50% or higher. In our experience, the average penetration rate in new fiber footprint reaches 45% by the third year after deployment. And since we've built more than 1,900,000 new fiber locations in the last three years, many of our markets are lower on the penetration curve, all of that to say lots of room to grow.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

The bottom line is this, our commitment to fiber is at the core of our strategy, and where we have fiber, we win. Turning to The US fiber market now on slide seven. The US is a natural expansion market for BCE where we can leverage our deep expertise in building fiber infrastructure. As a reminder to investors, let me briefly outline the reasons why The US fiber market is so attractive. US fiber deployment lags behind Canada.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Only 51% of homes in The US have fiber compared to 75% here in Canada. Fiber penetration also lags. Competitive dynamics are favorable given our largely two player market driven by retail with no mandated wholesale access to fiber. The market structure is even more attractive for Zipline. Household income and economic growth across its four states in the Pacific Northwest is above the national average.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

There are one or fewer gigabit capable competitors in 93% of Zipline fiber's operating footprint, no multi gig capable competitors, and relatively less overbuilding activity in the Pacific Northwest than in some other US regions. The U. S. Has attractive fiber economics with a low cost to build and strong ARPU growth. Importantly, like in Canada, U.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

S. Customers are choosing fiber, which brings me to our acquisition of Zipline on Slide eight. Zipline is delivering consistently strong results with EBITDA growing an impressive 17% in 2024 powered by fiber. This growth rate is even greater than planned, which is a testament to the Zipline management team's execution excellence. Management's demonstrated ability to execute will become even more valuable as the foot fiber footprint expands.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Zipline's more mature tenured markets have already reached 40% penetration. That compares with an average penetration rate of 23% in locations built in the last few years. So we're getting in at a very opportune time where there's still meaningful growth ahead of that penetration, particularly when you consider that over 40% of fiber locations were built in the last four years with more to come. 85% of Zipline's approximately 400,000 retail subscribers are on pure fiber service. Zipline also benefits from a favorable operating mix with over 70% of total revenues from consumer and SMB and with a robust enterprise and wholesale business also built on the back of fiber.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

The acquisition is on track to close in the second half of twenty twenty five. It's an important part of our plan to generate sustained top line and EBITDA growth. Now let's move to Slide nine. We previously said we'd be open to working with third parties help fund our fiber growth in The US as we look to strengthen our balance sheet, diversify our revenue streams, and improve free cash flow. There's been strong interest amongst financial partners to join us in capturing a significant growth opportunity.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Given the power of Zipline's assets and strong track record of its management team and BC's experience and success with fiber. As mentioned, we're very pleased to announce a long term strategic partnership with PSP Investments through their infrastructure portfolio to build new fiber locations in The US and support Zipline's footprint expansion. BCE through Zipline will retain a 49% equity stake in the partnership with PSP owning 51%. PSP has been an investor in Zipline and knows the management team well. To be clear, and this is important, BCE will own 100% of Zipline's existing operations, subscribers, and financials.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Zipline, as a BC subsidiary, will continue its fiber expansion within its remaining copper footprint. Zipline will also retain all retail customer relationships associated with the incremental fiber locations to be built by the strategic partnership. What the partnership will be focused on is building last mile fiber in Zipline's growth markets. This includes the near term development of approximately 1,000,000 fiber passings in Zipline's existing states with the ability to expand to 6,000,000 fiber locations longer term. This will enable Zipline to eventually reach up to 8,000,000 total fiber locations, an increase from its original target of 3,000,000.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

The strategic partnership structure is a cost effective and capital efficient way to fund our U. S. Fiber growth while still meeting our deleveraging targets, and I'll detail that momentarily. Now let's move to Slide 10. This long term partnership provides clarity on our U.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

S. Fiber ambitions. Zipline's ILEC footprint covers approximately 2,000,000 customer premises. Upon closing of the acquisition, fiber will already be available to approximately 1,500,000 of these locations. The remaining 500,000 locations will be built and owned by Zipline over the coming years as part of Ziply's existing in footprint fiber build strategy.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

And as I mentioned, the partnership has long term visibility into as as many as 6,000,000 additional locations outside of Ziply's two million location ILEC footprint. The partnership unlocks our ability to capture the significant additional footprint and related financial benefits. So when you combine our 8,000,000 locations in Canada that have fiber this year, Our US fiber assets will grow BC's position as North America's Third largest fiber Internet provider with access to approximately 16,000,000 total passings. There's clearly long term growth potential in this critical space. Turning now to Slide 11 to wrap up on The U.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

S. Fiber. The PSP strategic partnership is an exciting announcement for BCE and for our shareholders. It allows us again to support the fiber expansion in a cost efficient manner while optimizing the balance sheet and improving our free cash flow profile. Through this endeavor, Ziply will retain the retail economics of its existing and future customer relationships in the fiber footprint to be deployed by the partnership, and this will improve BC's revenue and EBITDA growth profiles.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

BC and PSP will proportionately fund any equity needed by the partnership as required over time. This significantly reduces the capital investment by BCE and improves BCE free cash flow by over $1,000,000,000 over the twenty twenty six to twenty twenty eight time period. The partnership will also have its own nonrecourse debt financing, which is anticipated to be the majority of its capital over time. This further reduces BCE's cash funding requirement. The partnership will be deconsolidated with all CapEx and debt financing remaining off BCE's balance sheet.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

This structure and attractive cost of capital will improve our expected returns in The US. We're estimating an all in rate of return in The US of 20% or higher. So now let me turn to the next element of our strategic road map, and that's on slide 12. Our third priority is to unlock the potential of businesses with the best technology solutions, and we've set an ambitious goal, which I've shared before, to generate a billion dollars in revenue by 2030, and we're well on our way. And just two days ago, we launched Ateco.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

It's an all new Montreal headquarter technology solutions provider, and Ateco brings together under the under the same banner the tech startups we've recently acquired, which are FX Innovation, Cloud Kettle, and HGC Technologies. Its competitive differentiators uniquely position it to deliver better outcomes for enterprise customers. Ateco's team of workflow automation experts will draw on their experience in the world's largest hyperscalers and automation platforms like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Salesforce, and ServiceNow to help customers streamline their operations, improve automation, enhance customer experience, and facilitate data driven decision making. We've created a one stop shop for businesses, networking, and technology solutions needs. Ateco's capabilities position us to achieve significant growth in the enterprise space.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

I'll now move to Slide 13. The fourth key area of focus is to build a digital media and content powerhouse. Our digital pivot in media is bearing fruit after a lot of hard work and focused investments. Digital advertising is expected to have a total addressable market of $22,000,000,000 in Canada in 2028, up from 16,000,000,000 in 2024. As we continue to capture more share of that digital advertising market, profitable growth lies ahead for Bell Media.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Our priorities in digital media and content are the following. Grow Crave from 4,000,000 subscribers today to 6,000,000 by 2028, maintain sports leadership through the best breadth of content, accelerating conversion to digital inventory, and a focus on extending content value and monetization. This is already being realized with Bell Media's acquisition of a majority stake of global content distributor Sphere Abacus. This move expands Bell Media's content distribution opportunities. Let me touch briefly now on the fifth key pillar on slide 14.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

As I outlined in February, we have an extensive transformation program in place to modernize and simplify how we do business. We started this transformation in 2022, and it's already delivered $500,000,000 in savings. At the time, I stated that we had $500,000,000 more to go through 2028 to achieve our goal of a billion dollars in cost savings. Given our transformation momentum to date, we've upsized that objective by an additional $500,000,000 for a new goal of $1,500,000,000 in total cost savings by the end of twenty twenty eight. I'll now turn to our capital allocation strategy on slide 15.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

We're navigating a complex operating environment, has evolved significantly since the fall of twenty twenty four. In February of this year, we laid out a clear roadmap to adapt to this evolving environment, and I've kinda expanded on it today. Core to this plan is our capital allocation strategy. Strengthening the balance sheet, investing for growth, and driving total returns are the key priorities. Let me share the meaningful progress we've made over the last few months, beginning with optimizing our balance sheet.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

In February and March, we successfully accessed the hybrid debt markets in The U. S. And Canada, raising the Canadian equivalent of approximately $4,400,000,000 in our first hybrid offerings in each market. Given the 50% equity treatment afforded by the credit rating agencies, this has meaningfully improved our leverage ratio. Consistent with our deleveraging plans, we repurchased several bonds trading at a discount to par value, reducing the amount of debt.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

These actions have collectively lowered our net debt leverage ratio by approximately 0.3 times since Q4, bringing it to approximately 3.6 times adjusted EBITDA. Given BC's healthy balance sheet and business mix, we are best in class from a credit ratings perspective in Canadian Telecom. In addition, our review of non core assets continues to advance. The previously announced divestitures of Northwest Tel and MLSC are progressing as expected, and we've launched two processes for additional divestitures. Proceeds from any new sale will support our deleveraging efforts.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

The acquisition funding for Ziply is leverage neutral, and we structured the transaction in a way that balances growth with financial discipline. I've explained that in detail in the earlier in the earlier sections on The US. Bottom line is the partnership will enable us to better capture the significant upside of fiber expansion, unlocking incremental cash flow to support deleveraging at the BC level, and it complements our broader efforts to strengthen the balance sheet. And as I mentioned earlier, we're already seeing Zipline outperform expectations. In fact, since we announced the acquisition in November, the transaction multiple of 14.3 times estimated 2025 adjusted EBITDA is now already closer to 13 times.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

The Zipline team is driving very strong customer acquisition and penetration on its fiber metrics, and the metrics will get even better as we go forward as we capture the incremental synergies and growth opportunity from the PSP partnership. Now the second component of our capital allocation strategy is investing for growth. Our approach remains grounded in those strategic pillars I've outlined previously, and we'll continue to execute on them with precisions. The investments are designed to position us for sustained success in an evolving market for ensuring we'll remain an industry leader. And the third aspect of our strategy is delivering value to shareholders.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

The focus is on maintaining a resilient and sustainable dividend, achieving leverage ratio targets, and greater flexibility as we drive total shareholder returns. And that brings me to slide 16 and our dividend announcement this morning, which encompasses all three components of our capital allocation strategy. We spent considerable time with our shareholders, discussing their perspectives and carefully evaluating our operating landscape. We must address a number of significant changes in our economic and operating environments that have occurred since the fall of twenty twenty four, as I've mentioned. Today's actions will allow us to deftly navigate through this cycle.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Considering these factors, we've made the appropriate decision to adjust our dividend. The annualized dividend per BC common share will be established at $1.75 per year effective with the Q2 dividend payment. Even with the adjustment of the to the dividend, we continue to provide an attractive yield that is among the highest on the TSX sixty. Additionally, we're updating our long term common share dividend payout policy to target a payout range of 40% to 55% of free cash flow. This policy range provides us with more flexibility for deleveraging.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

To make it easier for investors to consider the effects of capital leases on our cash flow, we will begin to also disclose our free cash flow after capital lease repayments going forward. In addition, we will provide on an annual basis the implied dividend payout ratio on the basis of free cash flow after cap lease repayments along with the payout ratio based on our policy. The adjusted dividend will support our deleveraging efforts while providing enhanced flexibility and positions us as a resilient dividend paying company. By the end of twenty twenty seven, we expect to achieve a net debt leverage ratio of approximately 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA pro form a Ziply with a longer term goal of approaching three times by 02/1930. We will also eliminate the treasury discount feature of the DRIP effective with the q two dividend payment on July 15.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

These decisions are the right ones for the long term health of BCE and the long term interest of our shareholders. As we look to the future, I wanna reiterate our unwavering focus on disciplined execution, financial resilience, and value creation. The steps we've taken this quarter demonstrate our ability to adapt and deliver in a challenging environment. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Kurz.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Thank you, Mirko, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin on slide 18 with BC. Adjusted EBITDA was essentially stable, while margin improved 40 points on the back of a 2.1% reduction in operating costs. Total revenue was down 1.3%. This can be largely attributed to a 7.4 decrease in low margin product sales, which included the loss of revenue from the source store closures in 2024 and conversions to Best Buy Express.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Our service revenue result reflected the flow through impact of sustained competitive pricing pressures over the past year and ongoing declines in legacy voice, data, and satellite TV services. Net earnings were up nearly 50% in q one. The increase was due mainly to early debt redemption gains related to the repurchase of certain bonds trading at a discount to par value. Nothing notable on adjusted EPS, consistent with our 2025 guidance assumptions for interest and depreciation expense and a higher average number of shares outstanding because of the discounted treasury DRIP. It was down $03 compared to last year.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

CapEx was down $273,000,000 this quarter. We remain on track to reduce capital investment by $500,000,000 in 2025 in line with our plan. The CapEx reduction, lower cash taxes and higher cash from working capital drove a $713,000,000 year over year increase in Q1 free cash flow. Turning to Bell CTS on slide 19. Starting with a high level summary of q one subscriber metrics.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Retail Internet net adds of, 9,500 were down versus an exceptionally strong Q1 last year. In addition to slowing industry growth due to fewer newcomers and less new fiber footprint expansion, our result this quarter reflected our consistent strategy to balance subscriber growth with financial performance. Importantly, customers continue to choose fiber because we offer a superior product with a symmetrical speed advantage over cable. Where we have fiber, our subscriber loadings and market share gains remain strong. Our fiber to the home customer base now accounts for 68% of our total retail Internet subscriber base.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Moving to wireless. We recorded a small net loss in total mobile phone subs in q one compared to 25,000 net adds last year. This was a function of a 7.7% decrease in gross activations, reflecting a slower market. However, consistent with our operating strategy to focus on margin accretive subscriber acquisition, we gained 25,000 net new customers on the main Bell brand. Notably, postpaid churn remained stable in Q1 following nine consecutive quarters of year over year increases.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

While it remains higher than we'd like, we're pleased with the improving trajectory. Managing our churn will continue to be a top priority. Mobile phone ARPU was down 1.8%. This represents a second straight quarter of improvement in the year over year rate of decline. Our ARPU result this quarter reflected sustained competitive pricing pressure and lower roaming due in part to decreased travel to The US.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Moving to Bell CTS Financials. Internet revenue was up 2.4%. Solid result showing we're striking the the right balance between sub growth and disciplined pricing. We also saw continued strength in business solutions where revenue grew 8% over last year. This was driven by higher sales of technology solutions as well as acquisitions made over the past year.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Wireless service revenue was down dot 8%. This is a notable improvement from the 1.5% decline in q four. We expect the rate of decline will continue to improve going forward as ARPU improves. However, the industry will continue to feel the impacts of the pricing levels in market over the last twelve months for a while longer. Wireless product revenue was down $60,000,000 this quarter.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

The year over year decline was the result of lower sales of mobile devices to large enterprise customers in the government sector as well as the loss of revenue from the source store closures in '24 and conversions to Best Buy Express. Our EBITDA result was in line with plan. Notably, margin increased 20 points over last year to 45 dot 7%, the direct result of our significant and ongoing focus on cost management as evidenced by a 2.7% reduction in operating costs this quarter. Turning over to Bell Media on slide 20. Continued digital momentum and strong overall financial performance marked by a fourth consecutive quarter of revenue and EBITDA growth.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Digital revenues were up 12%. This was mainly on the back of strong Crave D2C streaming growth, which drove a 22% increase in Crave subscribers to three dot 8,000,000. Notably, direct to consumer streaming subscriptions now comprise the majority of total Crave subscribers. Total advertising revenue increased for a fifth straight quarter on the strength of digital, live sports, and events, increased spending related to the federal election, and the contribution of OutEdge Media. Subscriber revenue growth of seven dot 8% was driven by continued direct consumer crave and sports streaming growth.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Media EBITDA was up 35 dot 9%, driving a substantial four dot four point increase in margin to 20.5%. Really a nice performance by media by growing revenue, EBITDA, and margins. Turning to slide 21. Our balance sheet is very healthy with 4 dot 7,000,000,000 of available liquidity and pension solvency surpluses totaling 3,800,000,000.0 at the end of Q1. We ended Q1 with a net debt leverage ratio of below 3.6 times adjusted EBITDA compared to 3.8 times at the end of Q4.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

The decrease can be attributed to the combined impact of $4,400,000,000 in hybrid notes offerings issued in advance of the Ziply Fiber transaction and repurchases of bonds trading at a discount to principal value. We are highly focused on deleveraging our balance sheet with the execution of our plan toward a net debt leverage ratio of approximately 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA by the end of twenty twenty seven. The plan includes substantial free cash flow generation, divestiture of non core assets and applying incremental retained cash resulting from the revised dividend level toward paying down debt. Our updated dividend payout policy of 40% to 55% of free cash flow is reflective of a balanced approach to capital allocation. This policy range allows us to fund our capital allocation priorities, which are to optimize the balance sheet, invest for growth and return capital to shareholders.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

To wrap up on Slide 22, we remain confident in our proven ability to deliver under any circumstances, backed by the best networks and services, our ongoing business transformation, consistent operational execution and cost discipline. We're laser focused on the key strategic priorities that Mirko outlined to create long term value for shareholders. I'd also notice that I am reconfirming our financial guidance targets for 2025 with the annualized common dividend at $1.75 per share. I will now turn the call back over to Richard and the operator to begin Q and A.

[Richard Bengian, Director of IR at BCE]

Thanks, Curtis. Before we start, I want to remind everyone that due to time constraints this morning because of our AGM that is taking place after this call, to please limit yourselves to one question and a brief follow-up so that we can get to as many in the queue as possible. With that, Matthew, we are ready to take our first question.

[Operator]

Thank you. The first question is from Mehri Yaghi from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Maher Yaghi, Managing Director at Scotiabank]

Great. Thank you for taking my question. Never easy decisions when companies decide to cut the dividends, but doing it for the right reasons I think it's very good. I wanted to ask you in terms of your leverage targets that you mentioned in your prepared remarks and in your presentation, do they include any asset sales that have not been announced yet? And just a follow-up in terms of wireless.

[Maher Yaghi, Managing Director at Scotiabank]

When we look at gross loading in the environment that you're operating in, do you think that Q1 was a apparent quarter or this is more the environment that you're going to be probably in for the rest of the year? Thank you.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Thanks for the question, Meyer. In terms of the leverage targets, you know, our plan remains as we announced couple of months ago to sell the $7,000,000,000 in assets that includes MLSE, Northwest Tel, and a couple other processes that we have on the go. So it it basically factors in what we, what we announced last quarter.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

On, thanks for the question, Mehrotz Mirko. On the, the wireless question, I give you a May maybe a bit of a a broader answer, but but I'll basically, to to answer a very specific question, but but more context. So I would say that if you looked at early on in q one, we were seeing some pricing stability green shoots. I think in back half of q one, there was a reversion to kind of frothy pricing activity across the industry. So I think you see from that the overall industry loadings in including ours are affected by the macro environment as well, including the clampdown on immigration.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

And and then there's the kind of impact of pricing. So if you put the two together, we decided not to not to go after nonaccretive loadings. So what you the numbers behind the numbers is that we had pretty strong performance on the Bell brand again, and we had strong performance on, on cross sell. And our wireless product margins remained positive. So I think now to end that's the context for q one.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Now to answer your specific question, as we're we look into q two and and the progress so far, we see the metrics trending in the right direction for sure, and we see ARPU decline improvement. We're seeing churn improvement. Our sales were okay in q one, and as we improve churn, I think that's going to deliver, you know, what investors are expecting.

[Maher Yaghi, Managing Director at Scotiabank]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Drew McReynolds from RBC. Please go ahead.

[Drew McReynolds, Managing Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets]

Yeah. Thanks very much. Good morning. I guess first on the 2025 reiteration of guidance. Marco, you began to talk about Q2, and I understand visibility is not great.

[Drew McReynolds, Managing Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets]

Just want to get a sense of the working assumptions in terms of reiterating guidance with respect to the competitive environment and macro. We're just trying to assess, I guess, your degree of confidence in keeping within your existing guidance range. And then my follow-up just on the target 3.5x leverage for 2027. So great, obviously, to get a target out there. Simplistically, if I kind of run that through my forecast, including kind of the noncore asset sales that you've announced, the aggregate $7,000,000,000 I get a leverage by 2027 that's just a little 0.2x, 0.3x lower than 3.5x.

[Drew McReynolds, Managing Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets]

So I'm just trying to figure out if there's anything else here, whether it's EBITDA growth or higher kind of CapEx investment given the announcement this morning. Just any other big picture puts and takes that you know, may help reconcile that. And if I need to take that offline with Curtis, that's great.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Yeah. Hi, Drew. Thanks for the question. Yeah. We delevered in q one as we issued the the hybrids.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Thought it was a good idea to to issue hybrids to delever, given the kind of uncertainty in the market. So once we close Zipply, leverage would go back up given we're assuming Zipply Fiber, debt as well. And going forward, as you say, free cash flow growth, asset sales. Then you made a comment about, funding needs. The the funding needs at the partnership are actually quite limited given, our partnership with PSP and the ability to lever at the partnership level.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

So as Mirko said, the partnership by itself actually improves our free cash flow by over a billion dollars in the first three years. So, all of that will lead us to, better free cash flow and deleveraging.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

On the first question, Drew, it's Mirko. I just you know, in terms of the the reconfirming of guidance, you know, if you go back to February, and, when we provided guidance for the year, that's why we had a a view of what the year would look like. And, therefore, we put the ranges in place that we did, you know, kinda with a fairly relative terms, fairly wide range on on either end, to, to acknowledge the environment that we thought we would be in. So we're in a position to to reconfirm that guidance today.

[Drew McReynolds, Managing Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets]

K. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Vince Valentini from TD Securities. Please go ahead.

[Vince Valentini, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Thanks very much. First, just to clarify on guidance as well. Dollars 300,000,000 gain on the bond redemptions helped your free cash flow in the first quarter, but you've not changed the guidance. Should you be at least trending to the high end of that free cash flow guidance given that boost, which I'm pretty sure you didn't expect when you gave us the guidance originally in February? And then on Zipline joint venture, can you just confirm you would be the exclusive retail partner on the Network Fiber Co?

[Vince Valentini, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

And the extra 6,000,000 homes, is that all planned construction, or could some of that be buying existing assets in combination with, CapEx? Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. It's Mirko. On the first well, I'll answer the last two questions first.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

So, yes, the plan is for, Ziply Fiber to be the exclusive tenant on the network. And on, fiber, and on reaching the additional 6,000,000 homes and you asked a question there about the possibility of m and a. Like, right now, the focus is, closing the Ziply Fiber transaction. And shortly after that, we'll be in a position to close Network Fiber Co, which is the strategic partnership. Then the focus is gonna be to execute on the build plan in in that attractive, US market.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

So those are those are I highlight that for a reason. That's gonna be the focus. If down the road, we see we can more efficiently hit build targets through m and a, the goal will be to do so, but within the partnership and, without, intending to veer off of our deleveraging targets that we've expressed to all of you today.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Thanks. And then, Vince, the the gain on the repurchase. So while we, we're able to reduce our debt amount, principal amount by over 500, the actual gain is not included in our free cash flow.

[Vince Valentini, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

The 798,000,000 in the first quarter did not include that 300,000,000, Curtis?

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Correct. It, the the outperformance is largely, working capital and cash cash tax timing.

[Vince Valentini, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay. I may have to take you offline because I don't see where it's backed out in your numbers, but I'll trust you. Thank you.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Matthew Griffiths from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

[Matt Griffiths, Research Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch]

Hi. Thanks for taking the question. On the timing of this the PSP kind of network fiber co, how should we think about that? I mean, obviously, I know you're focused on closing things first. But is it what is the timeframe generally for the 6,000,000 homes passed?

[Matt Griffiths, Research Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch]

And is the 1,500,000.0 billion dollars contribution from PSP, is that directly tied to the $6,000,000 passing number? Or is that just the initial investment? And to achieve the 6,000,000 additional funding is required? Any detail would be helpful in understanding how this all how the numbers that are presented kind of tie together. And then just quickly on the 25,000 net adds on the main Bell brand, I was curious how that compares year over year. Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. So on, so it's a long the the partnership is a long term, partnership through, through the infra side of PSP, as I mentioned. So, you know, the the the goal will be to, get to the 6,000,000 homes over over time. You can't you can't build instantaneously, so that will take time.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

And the the commitment, that we express in terms of the the financial contribution that will be provided over time as we build. So that's that's the intent there. And as I mentioned, we'll be we'll be providing debt financing at that partnership level of as well to to help fund that program.

[Matt Griffiths, Research Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch]

And then on the, Bell brand, Meta?

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Yeah. I was looking for it. So that's why there was a little bit

[Matt Griffiths, Research Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch]

Oh, sorry.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

No. No. That's why there was a little bit of a stall. So, it's down 9,000 year over year.

[Matt Griffiths, Research Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch]

Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate the, clarity.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Sebastiano Petty from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

[Sebastiano Petti, Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

Hi, good morning everyone. Just one quick follow-up on the $1,500,000,000 Is that a capital call or a lump sum payment that you'll have to make? And then just following up on Drew's question, just thinking about the delevering profile or the 3.5 net debt leverage target over time, we're just a lot of questions, lot of inbounds from investors just trying to understand or square the math there. I mean you have $7,000,000,000 of asset sales coming through. You have $2,000,000,000 of ZipLee debt that's coming on.

[Sebastiano Petti, Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

That implies pretty significant delevering. But then it sounds like you're going to be relevering. So is there a downgrade to free cash flow that we should be thinking about, particularly in light of the dividend? You have $2,000,000,000, you know, without the dividend payment of cash each year. I'm just trying to square that math there.

[Sebastiano Petti, Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

And then also lastly on the dividend, sorry, Curtis. You know, why why $1.75? Why did you land there? Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Okay. So, I'll I'll Curtis will answer the free cash flow, question, but let me let me address, the other two. Your first question, same, essentially what Matthew asked me. So it's going to the contributions to Network Fiber Co are over time as we build. So it's not a onetime payment.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

The third question on why a dollar 75, on that one, the board considered a range of options, as I'm sure you can imagine. And and this is the level that the BCE board believes gives us the flexibility to achieve our capital allocation objectives. And, you know, they're on page 15 of our presentation. So it's optimized the balance sheet, essentially accelerate deleveraging and and optimize the cost of capital. The flexibility to invest for growth, it's incumbent on us to continue to grow this franchise and and then, you know, return deliver total shareholder returns to our shareholders by being a sustainable dividend paying company.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

So that's and so, you know, of the range of options that we had considered and and taking in the input of of investors over time, that's the number that the board felt gave us that flexibility.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

And then to address your your leverage question, Sebastiano, so the $7,000,000,000 of asset sales is the gross number, but the MLSE proceeds so the net proceeds from the $4,700,000,000 sale of MLSE are part of the sources and uses to acquire Ziply Fiber.

[Sebastiano Petti, Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

Got it. Understood. And then maybe so the open access partnership, I guess, I mean, yes, maybe The US is behind in terms of fiber build out in The US, but relative to Canada. But with The US built 10,000,000 fiber passings last year on pace to build another 10,000,000 over the next several years. We have very long term, well capitalized companies chasing additional passings.

[Sebastiano Petti, Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

Just trying to what gives you comfort, I guess, maybe in the the greenfield opportunity of getting to that incremental five, 5,000,000 that you guys have outlined above and beyond the three that you originally talked about with Zipley? Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Oh, we we've done we've done the work in our due diligence on the extent of passings that are there and and ready to be built to at a a low cost to build. So we've done some extensive due diligence on that. So we are quite comfortable as is the Ziply fiber team, as you can imagine. And on the first part, you said open open access, but I don't know what you meant there, as Vince asked.

[Sebastiano Petti, Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

Sorry.

[Sebastiano Petti, Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

Yeah. Sorry. It's more of the wholesale partnership. Just, yeah. So not just an open access partnership.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

The partnership is just to be clear, the partnership is not an open access partnership, just to be clear on that. And then we Yep. We also will be able to get to those 6,000,000 homes, which we've, you know, kind of, like I said, done extensive work on at a at an attractive cost of capital given the structure that we've established with PSP. And I I'd say PSP is also a very experienced telecom infrastructure, investor, and and they see the potential here in The US and particularly with Zipline Fiber, which they're already a shareholder of and working with us given our expertise.

[Sebastiano Petti, Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Jerome Zubay from Desjardins Securities. Please go ahead.

[Jérome Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities]

Hey, thank you. Thanks for taking my question. First is on the acceleration of fiber deployment. Actually, it looks like an acceleration. I'm not sure the time frame is comparable.

[Jérome Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities]

And it looks to be significant. So I'm trying to see what is the rationale behind that. Is it now that your capital structure is in a better place that you can afford to do that? Or maybe are you seeing additional opportunity? And the second one, I mean, are going to be trying to figure out what the pro form a free cash flow is gonna be, pro form a, the infra co, and the acceleration.

[Jérome Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities]

So any detail you can provide? Are you investing more in terms of free cash net of all the transactions you are announcing this morning? Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Thanks, Yawam. So on the acceleration point, I just wanna clarify. So when we announced Zipline Fiber initially, we indicated that they had a base case build plan to get to about 3,000,000 homes by 2029. And with BCE's scale and resources, we would accelerate that 3,000,000 homes to 2028. So that doesn't change.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

We think we'll get to around 3,000,000 homes by 2028. '2 million of those of those 3,000,000 and most and those 3,000,000 will largely be in the four Pacific Northwest states in which Sipley Fiber currently operates. What what's different here is, you know, at close, we'll have 1,500,000 of those 3,000,000 already done. There's another 500,000 copper lines in Ziply Fiber ILEC footprint that we need to upgrade to fiber by 2028. That will be funded by BCE.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

The other million homes will be part of the partnership. So it's it's a different way of getting to the same 3,000,000 homes in a way that's immediately free cash flow, kinda immediately improves the free cash flow profile of BCE by the billion dollars that I mentioned given the the support of PSP. It strengthens and increases our ability to capture that fiber opportunity. And in terms of the additional 5,000,000 homes, therefore, those will be tackled over time beyond 2028 with PSP as a world class financial partner. So, therefore, that's gonna accelerate Zipline Fibers growth and accelerate and provide it with, you know, expanded growth potential, again, in a financially flexible way given that we'd be doing it through the strategic partnership.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

So all, you know, all told, we're gonna be enhancing the returns associated with, the Ziply fiber investment. Not to mention that, you know, it's it's already, you know, looking more accretive accretive than in November of twenty twenty four given the management team's performance even since we announced the deal.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

Then, Jerome, just to to pile on, you asked a question about the free cash flow. I think one other input. So we had said in, in November, CapEx, pro form a for Zipline would live within the 16 and a half percent c to I envelope. Given the partnership with PSP, we expect that's gonna be close to 14 and a half percent. And then after, after Zipline has built out the 500,000 locations within its ILEC footprint, as Mirko mentioned, then we would expect that c to I percentage to, drop from there.

[Jérome Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Patrick Ho from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

[Patrick Ho, Research Associate at Morgan Stanley]

Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on. Just two questions for me. The first question is, can you guys talk about how you guys are thinking about the new government's impacts on key areas like TPI and immigration? And then the the second question I had is you guys upsized your cost savings target goal by 500,000,000 to 1,500,000,000.0.

[Patrick Ho, Research Associate at Morgan Stanley]

Can you just unpack, the various buckets that are within that additional 500,000,000 cost savings and just where these items come from? Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Yeah. I'll take both. On the, on the business transformation, like I said in my remarks, we've been quite successful, on the initiatives we've, we've undertaken since 2022, and that's delivered the 500,000,000 that I that I've outlined and I've shared before. And and that's, you know, that's one of the key drivers that allows us to increase margins across BCE quarter after quarter. In terms of, the initiatives, just to keep it to keep it, kinda quick and simple, it's things like automation, use of AI, consolidating billing stacks, modernizing ordering stacks, obviously, continue on the copper to fiber migration, self serve, self install, use of chatbots, virtual agents, including, voice.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

So those are the kinds of things. And and we're also actually you know, we're relying in part on the expertise of Ateco, the folks at Ateco to help drive workflow automation and and unlocking the value from our Salesforce and ServiceNow environments. And if you think about it, there are significant learnings there, which we, of course, can bring to the benefit of our enterprise customers as we drive growth through tech services. So we're both, you know, on an op when we go to the customers, so we're both an operator because the things we're suggesting our enterprise customers do, we're doing for ourselves through Ateco. So that's, the answer on, on the business transformation. And the first one was first question.

[Richard Bengian, Director of IR at BCE]

TPIO.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Oh, TPIO. Yeah. Working with government. So thank you. Thank you,

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Richard. We're looking forward to having constructive dialogue with the new, federal government, and top of the list in terms of, of topics would be the fighter fiber resale file. I think it comes down, comes down to this. I we've celebrated our 40 birthday just last week. And for a hundred forty five years, we've been building critical infrastructure, in Canada for Canadians to connect Canadians, and that allows Canada to grow.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

Right? Because if you think about the the networks that our industry provides, you know, you need it for everything from AI to cloud services to banking to connecting with your loved ones to entertaining yourself, everything. And so we wanna continue to do that. And in order to continue to do that at the levels which we've been doing it, you do need ultimately an environment that encourages investment. And, you know, allowing the largest players in the market to resell services on each other's networks is actually a direct disincentive to investment.

[Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director at BCE]

And, it's gonna undermine the goal to have more resiliency and connect more Canadians, particularly in, in rural Canada. So, know, very and intend to take a very constructive approach, and if it's a logical position we have, and, and we're looking forward to the dialogue.

[Patrick Ho, Research Associate at Morgan Stanley]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Aravinda Galappathige from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

[Aravinda Galappatthige, Managing Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc]

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I'll start with the follow-up. I just wanted to make sure I heard you correctly. So the CapEx intensity ratio beyond 2025, it sounds like basically you will not exceed 14.5%.

[Aravinda Galappatthige, Managing Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc]

That would be sort of the new high point. I just wanted to confirm that. And secondly, based on sort of the business transformation cost reductions that you talked about with respect to severance and restructuring cash costs, I mean, was $330,000,000 last year. You know, how should we should should that kind of be sort of the standard for the next sort of next couple of years? I wanted to confirm that as well.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

So thanks, Aravinda, for the question. Yeah. I I think 14 and a half is the right range. I don't know if it's quite under 14 and a half, but it's in and around 14 and a half. Obviously, it, it depends a little bit on on how fast we're driving subscriber growth and and demand CapEx that comes along with that, but in in the 14 and a half percent range is is a good estimate.

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

And in terms of in terms of the cost reductions and and cost to actually capture those, I would say these past couple of years have been higher on the, onetime costs. There's still gonna be some costs going forward to, to to be able to capture benefits of transformation, but I I would expect the cost to be going down over time as it's more and more, process improvement as well.

[Aravinda Galappatthige, Managing Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc]

Okay. Thank you. I'll pass the line.

[Operator]

Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Benjian.

[Richard Bengian, Director of IR at BCE]

Thanks again for your participation on the call this morning. As usual, I will be available throughout the day for follow-up questions or clarifications. Thanks, and have a

[Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO at BCE]

great day. Thanks, everyone. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Richard Bengian, Director of IR
• Mirko Bibic, CEO, President & Director
• Curtis Millen, Executive VP & CFO

Analysts

• Maher Yaghi, Managing Director at Scotiabank
• Drew McReynolds, Managing Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets
• Vince Valentini, Managing Director at TD Cowen
• Matt Griffiths, Research Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Sebastiano Petti, Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan
• Jérome Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities
• Patrick Ho, Research Associate at Morgan Stanley
• Aravinda Galappatthige, Managing Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc