BCE Q2 2026 Earnings Report

BCE EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.47
• Consensus EPS: $0.46
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.01
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

BCE Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $4.35 billion
• Expected Revenue: $4.35 billion
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$5.37 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

BCE Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 8/6/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, August 6, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 8:00AM ET

BCE (NYSE:BCE) Inc. (NYSE: BCE) is a Canadian communications, media and entertainment company that operates through its primary subsidiaries, including Bell Canada and Bell Media. As a large integrated telecommunications provider, BCE delivers a broad range of connectivity services and content to residential, business and wholesale customers across Canada. The company combines network infrastructure with media assets to offer bundled communications and entertainment solutions.

On the services side, BCE provides fixed-line and wireless voice services, mobile data, high-speed internet, fibre and broadband access, and television services through platforms such as Bell Fibe and Bell TV. For business and public sector customers, the company offers enterprise networking, cloud and data centre services, managed IT and cybersecurity solutions, IoT and wholesale connectivity. Bell Media operates a portfolio of television and radio properties, streaming services and production capabilities, including well-known brands and channels that supply national content and advertising inventory.

BCE is headquartered in Montreal and serves customers across Canada through a nationwide network of wireline and wireless infrastructure and regional operations. The company has a long-standing presence in the Canadian communications market and has evolved from traditional telephony into converged digital and media offerings. BCE is led by an executive team and board of directors responsible for strategy, network investment and content distribution, and it continues to invest in next-generation networks and consumer-facing media platforms to support its integrated communications and entertainment business.

BCE Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Q2 execution remained on plan: revenue rose 1.5%, adjusted EBITDA increased 1%, free cash flow exceeded CAD 1 billion, and net-debt leverage improved to approximately 3.7x. Management reconfirmed all 2026 guidance and remains targeted at 3.5x leverage by year-end 2027.
• Positive Sentiment: Wireless and Canadian fiber trends improved, with 41,594 postpaid phone net adds, postpaid churn falling to a three-year low of 1.02%, and 45,271 residential FTTH internet additions. Management emphasized better pricing, reduced hardware discounting, and stronger product margins.
• Positive Sentiment: Bell Media delivered strong growth, with revenue up 8.9% and adjusted EBITDA up 3.8%, supported by FIFA World Cup coverage and Crave. Crave subscribers increased 23% to 5.1 million, direct-to-consumer streaming subscribers grew 49%, and digital video advertising revenue rose 39%.
• Positive Sentiment: Bell AI Fabric continues to advance, with approximately 335 MW of contracted capacity, construction progressing on the 300-MW Saskatchewan facility, and Winnipeg expected to enter service in the second half of 2026. Management said it has line of sight to 800 MW, although additional capacity depends on securing contracts and completing construction.
• Negative Sentiment: Capital spending increased CAD 317 million year over year, primarily due to Ziply Fiber and AI Fabric, causing free cash flow to decline year over year; approximately CAD 1.3 billion of Saskatchewan data-center CapEx is expected in the second half of 2026. Ziply’s revenue remained broadly flat as fiber growth was offset by legacy copper, voice, wholesale declines, and near-term subscriber-acquisition costs.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the BCE Q2 2026 results conference call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Chris Summers. Please go ahead, Mr. Summers.

[Chris Summers, VP of Investor Relations at BCE]

Thank you. 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 Q2 disclosure documents on the investor relations page of the bce.ca website, which we posted earlier this morning. Before we begin, I'd 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, President and CEO at BCE]

Thank you, Chris, and good morning to all. Our Q2 results show continued execution against the strategy we laid out at Investor Day last year. Consolidated revenue increased 1.5%, Adjusted EBITDA grew 1%, and we generated more than CAD 1 billion of free cash flow in the quarter. We also reduced our net debt leverage ratio to approximately 3.7x, while continuing to invest in the growth platforms that will shape BCE's long-term profile. The quarter also reflects progress across a number of key areas. Wireless trends improved, with pricing better reflecting the value we offer customers, postpaid churn reaching its lowest quarterly level in three years, and improved product margins. Fiber continued to drive internet growth across Canada and the U.S. Bell AI Fabric continued to build momentum, and Bell Media delivered a strong quarter, supported by FIFA World Cup performance and continued growth at Crave.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

This is exactly how we said we would run the company: disciplined execution in the core business, focused investment in higher growth opportunities, and a clear path to sustainable free cash flow growth. In fact, we've led the industry for the past couple of years in bringing down Canadian telecom capital spending in the face of unfavorable regulatory decisions, while at the same time redirecting that capital toward AI Fabric and U.S. fiber. I'll start on Slide three with our progress against the four strategic priorities we outlined last year. Putting the customer first remains foundational. In Q2, the customer experience and retention initiatives we've executed over the past year, and even before that, continued to pay off. Postpaid churn improved four basis points year-over-year to 1.02%, which is the lowest quarterly level in three years. In a lower growth market, that matters.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

We also launched our Always-on Internet solutions, wireless internet backup, and power backup. These are practical solutions that help customers stay connected when internet service is disrupted, or the power goes out, and they reflect how Bell's network assets can work together to deliver a more resilient experience. That focus on reliability and performance is also being recognized externally. During the quarter, Bell received leading network recognition from Opensignal, RootMetrics, and Ookla, including Canada's most reliable internet, Canada's fastest 5G plus network, and a suite of 10 Ookla speed test awards. Now turning to our second priority, delivering the best fiber and wireless networks. You see that fiber continued to drive growth in the quarter. In Canada, we added more than 45,000 residential FTTH internet subscribers, including Ziply Fiber. Total residential FTTH net adds were nearly 55,000, which contributed to 14.2% internet revenue growth.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Where we have fiber, we continue to win. That's been consistent. It's consistent in Canada and now in the U.S. as well. At Ziply, the focus remains on build execution, as we mentioned, as early as the beginning of this year and reiterated in May of this year. Permit submissions accelerated significantly through Q2, increasing more than fourfold from April to June. Penetration trends remain consistent with our investment case. Contractor capacity and fiber supply are in place to support the expected second-half build ramp. In wireless, we delivered more than 41,000 postpaid mobile phone net adds, comprising significant loading on the main Bell brand. Consumer share, which is in line with our peers. We saw improved performance in the large enterprise segment. This reflects our focus on higher-value customers, lower handset discounting, and a healthier recurring revenue mix across all customer segments.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Video also remains an important part of the household strategy, of course. Video net adds improved by roughly 24,000 year-over-year, driven by strong uptake of streaming bundles and a successful transition to hardware-free TV. Again, these are things we said we were going to do at Investor Day last October. If you combine that with fiber growth and adoption of Bell's own streaming and content services, you see support and continued momentum and product intensity on the full-service Bell brand. We also completed construction of our first sovereign-directed device satellite ground station in Quebec, with additional ground stations underway as we build the infrastructure to extend wireless connectivity beyond the reach of traditional networks through our AST partnership. Turning to our next strategic priority, which is leading in enterprise with AI-powered solutions.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

This remains one of the clearest examples of how we are repositioning Bell for growth. We're bringing together cloud, cybersecurity, AI adoption, data sovereignty, connectivity, and AI infrastructure for enterprise and government customers. This is where Bell's enterprise relationships, national networks, and AI capabilities come together. In Q2, demand for Ateko and Bell Cyber remained strong with combined revenue up 29% year-over-year. Again, clear proof of underlying momentum in AI-powered solutions. At the same time, Bell AI Fabric continues to move from announcement to execution. Saskatchewan remains on track with construction progressing at the 300-megawatt facility and first phase operations expected in the first half of 2027. The facility in Winnipeg is on track to enter service in the second half of this year, and Merritt Phase II, which is supported by the Cohere, BUZZ HPC, and Hypertec partnership across AI models, GPU infrastructure, and Canadian-built hardware.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

That facility, Phase II, is expected in early 2027 as well. Turning to the last of our four strategic priorities, which is building a digital media and content powerhouse. The digital strategy, which we've been executing in Bell Media for several years now, continued to show strong momentum in Q2. Crave surpassed 5 million subscribers, growing 23% year-over-year to 5.1 million, supported by 49% growth in direct-to-consumer streaming subs. That scale matters because it gives a strong owned and operated domestic platform for premium content, sports, and streaming, anchored in Canadian storytelling and our commitment to cultural sovereignty. FIFA World Cup 2026 was a major highlight this quarter, of course. Our live coverage reached 30.5 million Canadians across TSN, RDS, CTV, Noovo, and Crave, with millions more through FIFA programming across our platforms.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

The tournament's final in July became the most-watched World Cup match ever in Canada, with an average audience of 6.4 million viewers. Matches also consistently ranked among the most-watched content on Crave. More broadly, premium content becomes more valuable as we monetize it across the full Bell Media ecosystem and increasingly through global content distribution. In Q2, digital video advertising revenue grew 39% year-over-year, and total digital revenues were up 6%. That reinforces the monetization opportunity we continue to see from this strategy. Overall, Q2 reinforced the strategic role Bell Media plays inside BCE. Premium content, growing streaming scale, and stronger digital monetization, translating into 8.9% revenue growth and 3.8% Adjusted EBITDA growth in the quarter. I'll move to slide five because I want to come back to Bell AI Fabric and show the physical progress we're making on the ground. Saskatchewan is the anchor project.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Since our Q1 call, piling has been completed, and structural steelwork is underway at our 300 MW facility. Key construction partners are in place, and the first phase remains on track for operations in the first half of 2027. We now have approximately 335 MW of contracted capacity. Real facilities, real construction milestones, real customer commitments, all supporting the long-term AI-powered solutions growth platform we're building. Turning to slide six. This is the scorecard we introduced at Investor Day to track whether the strategy is translating into deeper customer relationships, stronger monetization, and sustainable growth.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Q2 shows continued execution against that roadmap. We're focused on the operating drivers that support long-term revenue, EBITDA, and free cash flow growth. Before I close, I want to thank the Bell team. The results we're sharing with everyone today reflect their focus on serving our customers, growing our business, and executing against the transparent plan. Curtis will now take you through the financial and operating results in detail. Curtis, over to you now.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Great. Thank you, Mirko. Good morning, everyone. I'll begin on Slide eight with BCE's consolidated financial results. We're pleased with our results, which reflect continued execution against our plan, balancing measured investment with a clear focus on returns and free cash flow. Total revenue was up 1.5% year-over-year in Q2, driven by the contribution from Ziply Fiber and growth at Bell Media. Adjusted EBITDA increased 1%, driven by Ziply Fiber, with Bell Media also contributing positively. Adjusted EBITDA margin was essentially stable at 43.8%. Adjusted EPS was up CAD 0.02 to CAD 0.65, supported by higher Adjusted EBITDA and the absence of certain non-cash mark-to-market losses on FX hedges and options recorded in Q2 of last year. CapEx was up CAD 317 million year-over-year, reflecting Ziply Fiber's fiber build-out in the U.S. and capital investments to support Bell AI Fabric.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Putting aside the highly accretive AI Fabric investments, our Canadian Telco CapEx declined year-over-year, consistent with the disciplined multi-year reduction we've been executing. As shown on the slide, the majority of expected 2026 Saskatchewan AI Data Center CapEx of approximately CAD 1.3 billion is to be incurred in the second half of the year. Consistent with the structure we outlined in March, we received our first tenant payment on the Saskatchewan facility in the quarter. Part of the approximately CAD 400 million in setup fees and prepayments partially offset the build cost of the facility. Free cash flow was over CAD 1 billion in the quarter. While down year-over-year due to higher CapEx, this was a strong result and is tracking consistent with our full year 2026 guidance.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Overall, in Q2, we delivered revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth, generated strong free cash flow, and continued to fund targeted growth investments in Ziply Fiber and Bell AI Fabric. Turning to Bell CTS Canada on Slide nine. Starting with a high-level summary of Q2 sub-metrics. We delivered 41,594 postpaid mobile phone net adds in the quarter. It's modestly lower year-over-year, reflecting a less active market and reduced promotional intensity compared to Q1. Postpaid churn improved four basis points year-over-year to 1.02%, the lowest quarterly level since Q2 of 2023. The improvement reflected lower customer switching activity in the quarter, together with the continued benefit of our customer service and retention initiatives. ARPU was relatively stable year-over-year, down approximately 0.2% without the impact of G7 summit-related revenue in Q2 of last year.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Importantly, the monthly recurring charges component of ARPU increased 0.7%, supported by higher quality loading and a healthier recurring revenue mix with improved transaction rates quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. In broadband, residential FTTH Internet net adds were 45,271, a strong result. Demand for fiber remains strong, and fiber continues to be the anchor of our household strategy. Video also continues to improve with 8,741 net adds, compared to a net loss of 15,851 in Q2 of last year. The improvement was supported by strong uptake of streaming bundles and a successful transition to hardware-free TV, reinforcing the product intensity strategy we outlined at our Investor Day. Turning to the financial results for Bell CTS Canada. In Bell Business Markets, underlying revenue grew approximately 3.4% year-over-year, supported by continued momentum in AI-powered solutions, including Ateko and Bell Cyber.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

On a reported basis, BBM was lower, reflecting two non-recurring items in Q2 of last year. Revenue from the Mission Flats AI data center in Kamloops, BC, which was recognized upon delivery under finance lease accounting, as well as G7 Summit-related revenue. Wireless service revenue was also affected by the G7 Summit in Q2 of last year. Without that impact, wireless service revenue was stable year-over-year. Wireless product revenue was down 6.6% year-over-year, reflecting our focus on healthier product margins, which drove fewer contracted mobile phone sales. Lower product revenue also reflected a Q2 market shift towards BYOD activations and fewer device upgrades. We'll continue to maintain discipline on hardware discounting, given our focus on product margin improvement, ARPU growth, and service revenue growth. To address affordability, we'll leverage device residual programs and trade-in rather than hardware discounting. Our Adjusted EBITDA result was in line with plan.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Notably, margin improved 40 basis points over last year to 46.1%. This reflects our continued focus on cost management, with operating costs down 4.7% this quarter. Turning to Bell CTS U.S. on Slide 10. Ziply remains focused on build execution and fiber penetration. Build activity is expected to increase significantly in the second half of the year. Local permit submissions accelerated through Q2, and the broader readiness work is progressing across state approvals, engineering, contractor capacity, and fiber supply. For expansion markets, state-level approvals have been obtained for approximately 75% of the 2027 location funnel, and high-level engineering is complete for approximately 60% of those locations. On subscriber performance, Ziply delivered its highest quarterly residential net adds since BCE acquired the business, at 99,600. Where Ziply has fiber, penetration continues to track the business case.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Revenue was broadly stable sequentially as fiber growth in consumer and small business was offset by ongoing legacy copper and voice declines and wholesale pressure. Adjusted EBITDA was CAD 95 million, representing a 40.6% margin. The margin reflected higher subscriber acquisition activity associated with stronger internet net adds. We're comfortable making that investment given penetration trends. The key point is that the fiber thesis remains intact. Where Ziply has fiber, it is winning customers, and the work needed to support the second half build ramp has advanced. Over to Bell Media on Slide 11. Continued digital momentum and strong overall financial performance marked the quarter. Total revenue up 8.9% and Adjusted EBITDA up 3.8% year-over-year. Revenue growth was driven by strong FIFA World Cup performance and continued Crave growth, with additional contribution from the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix and higher program sales.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Advertising revenue increased 5.3%, supported by strong FIFA advertiser demand. Subscriber revenue was also up. It was up 6.7%, driven by continued D2C streaming growth. Crave subscribers grew 23% year-over-year to reach 5.1 million subscribers, with direct-to-consumer streaming subs up 49%. Digital video advertising revenue also grew 39%, reinforcing the progress Bell Media is making in streaming scale and digital monetization. Adjusted EBITDA growth reflected the flow-through of higher revenue, despite higher content and event-related costs associated with FIFA, Formula One Canadian Grand Prix, and other premium programming. In short, a strong quarter for Bell Media. Turning to the balance sheet on slide 12. We ended Q2 with CAD 4.6 billion of total available liquidity, providing significant financial flexibility to fund our capital allocation priorities. Our reported net debt leverage ratio improved to approximately 3.7x at quarter end, down about 0.1x since Q4.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

As part of our ongoing focus on balance sheet optimization, we completed public debt offerings totaling CAD 2.5 billion in June and repurchased debt securities trading below par value through tender offers. Together with growth and Adjusted EBITDA, these actions contributed to the improvement in net debt leverage. Our defined benefit pension plans remain in a very strong position, with a solvency surplus of approximately CAD 4.9 billion, and an aggregate solvency ratio of approximately 125%. Looking ahead, the pending disposition of our Land Mobile Radio Networks service business is expected to provide additional support for deleveraging. We remain on track to achieve our target net debt leverage ratio of 3.5x by the end of 2027. Turning to slide 13, we are reconfirming all of our 2026 financial guidance targets.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

We remain focused on executing the plan we laid out at Investor Day, delivering revenue and EBITDA growth, focused execution across our core telecom business, funding our key growth priorities in Bell AI Fabric and U.S. Fiber, generating meaningful free cash flow, and progressing towards our 3.5x leverage target by the end of 2027. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Chris and the operator to begin Q&A.

[Chris Summers, VP of Investor Relations at BCE]

Thank you, Curtis. Before we start, to keep the call as efficient as possible, please limit yourselves to just one question and a brief follow-up so that we can get to as many in the queue as possible. With that, operator, we are ready to take our first question.

[Operator]

Thank you. If you're on the phone and wish to ask a question, please press star one. The first question is from Maher Yaghi from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Maher Yaghi, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Great. Thank you for taking my question. Curtis, I wanted to ask you in terms of the spend on Saskatchewan, you mentioned to expect a ramp in the second half. Just wanted to ask you, on the last call, you mentioned that the ramp is going to be Q2, Q3 mostly. Now it's Q3, Q4. Can you maybe just help us understand why CapEx has been pushed out a little bit further down the year? Is that timing on payments or timing on construction changes?

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Yeah. Hi, Maher. Thanks for the question. No change to construction timeline. This is a recording of CapEx when we actually spend the money. We've ordered the vast majority of the equipment. I mean, the construction is pay-as-you-go; the vast majority of equipment has been ordered; the CapEx will be recorded when the cash is actually being spent. That's less in Q2, more in Q3, Q4. Again, no change in timing. Just about all the materials, all the equipment has been ordered with delivery schedules that are on time with our overall project, penalties for late delivery, and in line with our budget.

[Maher Yaghi, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. That's great to hear. Thanks for that clarification. Just turning to Ziply now, my follow-up question is on the ramp in the second half. Now, obviously, it looks like we should expect fiber deployment to ramp in the second half and going into next year. You have been adding quite a few subscribers since you started disclosing results. I'm looking at 5% subscriber growth in fiber since Q4. The revenue line is essentially flat.

[Maher Yaghi, Analyst at Scotiabank]

The whole concept of Ziply is to provide you with revenue growth and EBITDA growth over time. I want to focus just on the revenue growth angle here. Do you expect the ramp in the second half to contribute to re-accelerating the revenue run rate of Ziply? When should we expect that growth to be visible? Because over the last three quarters, the top line is essentially flat. You got legacy decline offset by broadband growth. I'm trying to focus on the top line, please.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Yep. Hi, Maher. Thanks again for that question. Ultimately at Ziply, look, we're quite happy with the progress. The build is ramping up, as you mentioned. It's permits, it's hard hats, it's actually doing the building, and that continues to ramp up, as you've seen in our CapEx spend. As you said, that'll continue to ramp up back half of the year and then through into next year also. It's a continued ramp-up. What the team at Ziply Fiber has been really good at is where there is fiber, they are driving subscribers. Penetration rates on new fiber are exactly in line with historicals and with plans. Again, where they have fiber, they drive subs and drive revenue.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

The goal, and frankly, the biggest driver of long-term value for our shareholders, is continuing to drive that build and continuing to load fiber net adds. In that part, quite successful. I'd say gross adds on fiber were up 25% quarter-over-quarter. Obviously you have to spend the COA, and it's a small base, but I'll take that temporary margin pressure for future revenue growth. I think that's a very good trade.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Then, yeah, as you said, it's a small base, so this quarter, there was a heavier wholesale contract renewal than normal, and it has an impact on overall growth rates because it's still such a small base of revenue and EBITDA. Again, for us, what we're really focused on is building the footprint, driving fiber penetration, and the financials flow from there. Again, we're seeing ramp-up, and as we've disclosed repeatedly, this continues to ramp up back half of the year.

[Maher Yaghi, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question is from Drew McReynolds from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Drew McReynolds, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning. On the wireless side, a pretty good set of results considering a low-volume environment, at least from my perspective. Just wondering if there's any unusual kind of dynamics in the quarter, just given all the sporting events. I'm assuming no. The question really is, can you provide an update on just how the bundling strategy is working, the premium brand strategy is working, and what should we expect for wireless or ARPU network in the back half? Then the second question is on the data center side. In the deck, you allude to line of sight on 800 MW. Obviously, we've known that for a while. Just wondering if there's any update on that roadmap as we go from roughly 400 MW up to the 800. Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Hi Drew. Good morning. On the second one, still really positive momentum across all the AI-powered solutions businesses. On AI Fabric specifically, same goes. Funnel is very strong. When we've got more to announce, we'll obviously do that, but well on track and remain quite confident in the ability to monetize in a reasonable period of time, well more than the 335 MW that you already know about. On wireless, kind of wireless writ large, I say, and we're feeling that there's good industry momentum. Within that, we feel quite good about how we're executing, certainly in accordance with plan. I'd say you've seen, in the back half of Q2, strong quarter-over-quarter pricing improvements and strong year-over-year pricing improvements, which have continued into July for sure.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Again, as I said in my opening remarks, that's a good thing because the pricing we're seeing now is more reflective of the significant value and the significant investments that the entire industry, frankly, is delivering to consumers. That's one thing. Within that, we are going to remain uber-focused on profitability. What are the key drivers there that we need to look at? ARPU. In our case, very stable ARPU, if you normalize for the impact of the G7 summit last year, for sure. Same thing with wireless service revenues. On product revenue, you're seeing good numbers there in the sense that you can see it's pretty obvious that we're focusing, we're being very disciplined on hardware discounting. That's what, frankly, the industry has to get back to: ARPU and service revenue growth.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

That's what's going to allow us to continue to invest in the networks and in experiences that are going to drive value for consumers, and of course, correspondingly and importantly for our shareholders. That's what we're going to remain focused on, Drew, and that goes with product margin improvements. An example on hardware discounting: rather than leaning into hardware discounting to address affordability of devices for our consumers, what we'll be doing is using trade-in programs and device residual programs.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

That's how we're going to address the pro-consumer agenda and enhancements, all while remaining focused on profitability. I hope that answers the question. The underlying numbers there are pretty strong. What you see in terms of the net adds. Good consumer numbers in line with industry trends, and we've had strong performance in Q2 in the enterprise segment. I think you referred to the one-time impacts of sporting events. I thought you might have said that. The numbers that you see aren't reflective of anything unusual as a result of sporting events.

[Drew McReynolds, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Stephanie Price from CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.

[Sam Schmidt, Analyst at CIBC World Markets]

Hi there. It's Sam Schmidt on for Stephanie Price. I wanted to follow up on the data center opportunity. A number of U.S. data center peers announced significant increases in CapEx this earnings cycle, given demand tailwinds. Can you talk a bit about Bell's pipeline here and your appetite to spend more heavily on CapEx if the demand for the data centers is there? Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Yes. Thank you for the question. Our focus remains on, first of all, executing against the build for the data centers we've already announced. As Curtis mentioned, we're on plan there across all metrics, including CapEx spend. More broadly, in terms of strategically, we are deploying capital as a company where we have structural advantages. In the case of data centers, it's power, network infrastructure, enterprise relationships, artificial intelligence, and that's how we're going to drive greater shareholder value over the short, medium, and long term. Again, no surprises, we do exactly as we say. We've been very transparent that we have line of sight to 800 MW of power, 335 MW already contracted. As we contract more, as we get from the 335 to the 800 MW, we'll be funding it. On that front, again, it's been very consistent messaging, and we'll continue to do as we say.

[Sam Schmidt, Analyst at CIBC World Markets]

Thank you. Then just one follow-up on the wireline environment in Quebec. What are you seeing in terms of competition from traditional competitors and new entrants, and how are you thinking about potential growth drivers there? Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Yeah, thank you. My answer on wireless is kind of similar to the answer I gave to Drew on wireless. My answer on wirelines is similar to the answer I gave to Drew on wireless. We're seeing pricing across the board, Quebec or otherwise, that's more reflective of the tremendous value we're providing to consumers. And then, of course, within that, as ourselves, we're quite satisfied and happy right now with how we're executing. And the multi-product focus on the premium Bell brand is working. And for us, it's working because we do have the superior broadband network in fiber, so that certainly helps. We've made some tremendous improvements in our video offering with hardware-free TV and the streaming apps and the bundling, which is very attractive to consumers based on the take-up rates that we're seeing.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

You're seeing a lower churn as a result, and our product intensity stats are continuing to improve as we signaled they would when we held our Investor Day. So the key touch points are headed in the right direction, and I'll end my wireline answer exactly how I focused my wireless answer, which is that our focus as a company is improving the profitability of the connections we get to the wireline business.

[Sam Schmidt, Analyst at CIBC World Markets]

That's helpful. Thank you.

[Operator]

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

[Vince Valentini, Analyst at TD Securities]

Hey, thanks very much. I'll focus on wireless. A couple of questions about the outlook trends. I'd appreciate your comments on price discipline. If you put together everything you're seeing in the market- the bad pricing, if I call it that, in Q1, the better pricing in Q2, and then the activation fees, to the extent that'll have some impact in Q3- do you think wireless ARPU is still trending towards flattish? Do you have any prediction as to roughly when that happens, and do you think Q3 could get a bit worse with the activation fees falling off, or have you found a way to offset that? Secondly, on wireless, there's some chatter about a reasonably large government contract that may have shifted this quarter. Wonder if you can try to clarify that. What I mean is that a material portion of your postpaid adds this quarter?

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Yes. On the second one, that's what I was alluding to, Vince, when I gave the earlier answer to Drew's question. If you unpack our wireless net adds, there is a reflection of an enterprise contract won. Even parsing that out, our net adds otherwise are very much in line with our peers. In fact, if those were the only numbers we'd be reporting, we'd be quite satisfied. In line with our peers on wireless postpaid net adds, even excluding the government enterprise contract that you refer to.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

In terms of ARPU and service revenue and predictions, I certainly appreciate the spirit of the question, and I think rather than start predicting when things, or exact points in time when we're going to see this type of growth or that type of growth, I'd rather just focus on continued stability rather than getting into the prediction game on timing. The competitive environment seems to have normalized, certainly for a number of weeks now.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

We expect that improving trend to resume, certainly as we remain focused on profitability, where the fundamentals are looking solid right now. That was the case in the back half of Q2 and certainly in the beginning of Q3. Let's focus on the key drivers that will allow that to continue to improve rather than making predictions. If we do that, it will obviously show up in the reported results, I presume across the industry; that's a decidedly good thing.

[Vince Valentini, Analyst at TD Securities]

Thanks. Can I just clarify also, Curtis, how much of the CAD 400 million of tenant prepayments was received in the second quarter? I assume that's flowing through working capital.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Yeah. Hi, Vince. Call it around a quarter of that CAD 400 million, just below CAD 100. That is showing up in free cash flow.

[Vince Valentini, Analyst at TD Securities]

Free cash flow. Is it in the working capital line or the CapEx line?

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Yes, the working capital.

[Vince Valentini, Analyst at TD Securities]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Tim Casey from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Tim Casey, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Thanks. Pardon me. Could you just flesh out a little bit more this concept of a line of sight to 800 MW? Where should we expect that to show up in terms of both timing and geography? It sounds like, as you said, your funnel is very attractive, could you just give us a little more color on that environment and how those discussions are proceeding with potential partners?

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

335 contracted already. The Investor Day horizon plan, the plan to 2028, assumes 373 MW will be contracted. That means that today we're at 90% contracted for the plan. To the extent that we can pull more in, we will; you have to reflect in that the fact that if we, let's say, enter into a new contract for additional megawatts in late 2027, early 2028, the ability to generate meaningful revenues in the year 2028 would be very difficult to do because there is a build timeline. For now, let's just stick to: we've got 373 MW in the medium-term plan, 335 already contracted and being built. To the extent we can pull more in, we'll certainly try to do that.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Geographically, maybe the best way to answer that question, Tim, is to go back to May 2025 when we launched AI Fabric. We said then that our vision and our plan were to build a national ecosystem of interconnected AI data centers. That means that we have a vision where we would have data centers across multiple jurisdictions in the country. Of course, we've already got Manitoba, BC, and Saskatchewan. There'll be more to come in other provinces.

[Tim Casey, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from Jérôme Dubreuil from Desjardins Securities. Please go ahead.

[Jérôme Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities]

Hey, thanks. Good morning. First one I have is: can you share your views about whether long-term foreign satellite operators have a shot at competing with Canadian wireless operators? If you can describe why it may or may not be possible in your view.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Thank you, Jérôme. I'll give you maybe a shortish answer on this. We view satellite as being complementary to our networks; that's a structural conclusion. I'm giving you an answer that's grounded in physics. In the markets that generate the vast majority of our revenue, as you know, and that's where we have fiber-intensive wireless, those networks are in a completely different league on capacity, on speed, on economics. Satellite doesn't change that, and more satellites in the sky won't change that. Fiber has a 4x download advantage over satellite, 13x upload advantage over satellite, 5x better latency, and that's in rural, that's in urban. Where we have those networks, we have the distinct advantage. That's the first part. Secondly, I'd say Canada is structurally different than some other countries.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

We have different spectrum availability, and our allocation policies are different here than in other jurisdictions. The third thing I'd say is, we're quite pleased and continue to be focused on our AST partnership, which we'll use to extend coverage where terrestrial networks, whether those are fiber networks or terrestrial wireless networks, don't provide the coverage that consumers need.

[Jérôme Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities]

That's great. Thanks. Second one is on Ziply. Maybe on the margins, wondering if there were some near-term headwinds in the quarter on margins, or is there an impact from the high competition we're seeing in the U.S.? Thank you.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Yeah. Hi, Jérôme. Thanks for the question. In terms of the second part of your question, in terms of pricing, no, we're not really seeing either an impact. It's not changing our ability to drive penetration load subs on fiber. Those penetration rates have been pretty consistent, and it's not changing our ARPU relative to our base either. Stable ARPU and stable ramps in penetration.

[Jérôme Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities]

Thank you

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

The margin, it's what I talked about earlier, Jérôme, right? It's loading. When gross adds are up 25% on a small base, the COA expense increase has an impact on margins, and the flow-through on wholesale rerate.

[Jérôme Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities]

All right. Thanks.

[Operator]

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

[Sebastiano Petti, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Hi. Thank you. Just sticking with Ziply there for a second. The build activity is expected to increase in the second half here. You talked about permit submissions accelerating through the quarter. Maybe just back up and help us think. What has been the constraining factor in the build to date? Is it the submission of the permits? Is it pushing the permits through the approval process? Just trying to draw a conclusion from the acceleration of permits. Does that mean that approvals will also therefore accelerate? Just what's the constraining factor there?

[Sebastiano Petti, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Just back to the Bell AI Fabric for a moment. Any update on, I guess, just sovereign workloads and what are you hearing there, particularly as it pertains to the Saskatchewan right and the implied upside to some of the financials you've laid out? In regard to the Merritt Phase II, should we anticipate that, as that comes online, there will be another finance lease one-time payment? Thank you.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

No, Merritt Phase II will be an operating lease and therefore not a one-time finance lease impact.

[Sebastiano Petti, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Okay.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

On sovereign workloads, I think sovereign workloads are probably a midterm upside to our plan, given the long lead times on some of that demand. In the meantime, Frank, we're just focused on monetizing the megawatts and the capacity we have available. The sovereign upside and the timing as to when that comes isn't an impediment at all to executing against the plan that we've been transparently sharing with you. As far as Ziply is concerned, I think the main point here that I want to reiterate again is, back in February of this year, when we reported Q4 2025, we transparently laid out that 2026 was going to be a build reset. We reiterated that again in May. Very, very transparent. No surprises. Now we're sharing with you that there's momentum building on the build plan.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

I think the key thing here, Sebastiano, is what's fundamentally different. There are two things, but one of them that's fundamentally different is we're now in the growth phase, a different growth phase for Ziply, where we're starting to build out of incumbent territory. That requires different sets of planning, and we're well on our way on that. We're talking about permit submissions being up 4x from April to June. Our state-level approvals have been obtained for 75% of the 2027 location funnel, because you also need state approvals, then you need the more local permit approvals. We've got high-level engineering complete for 60% of the 2026 and 2027 funnel. We've got the contractor secured and the fiber supply secured for that funnel that we're getting approvals to build. That's all work that takes time, and the gating item there was that we're out of territory.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

I shared on the previous call how we adjusted the method of building even in territory. We're taking a more portfolio approach to the build. Even in territory, which is the way BCE has been doing it in Canada in order to more efficiently build at scale. We readjusted with the Ziply build team, even in territory, the approach we were going to take to build. It was to take a step to the side in order to speed up.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Again, no surprises here. I'm really quite pleased with the momentum that we're starting to build. For me, the focus is less on what happened in Q2, and it's more on whether the funnel is looking positive here so that we can start ramping at the back half of this year, gain even more momentum in 2027, and get to the 3 million in 2028. I'm feeling positive about that part of it.

[Sebastiano Petti, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Thank you.

[Operator]

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

[Aravinda Galappatthige, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to come back to the balance sheet a little bit. Obviously, waiting for you to close on the Land Mobile Radio Networks transaction. Mirko and Curtis, maybe is there anything else that's out there in your portfolio that has emerged? How should we think about the prospects for additional divestitures? A quick follow-up on Bell's CTS numbers. With respect to the one-time items, the Mission Flats finance lease and the G7 item, how did that impact the EBITDA, which was down, I think, 3.1%? Trying to get a sense of what would've been a more normalized number for that decline.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

Yes, I'll let Curtis answer the second one. I'll answer the first one. I think the best answer is to give you a short one on the first one. A year and a half ago, we outlined that we planned to generate CAD 7 billion in proceeds from non-core asset dispositions. We're at CAD 6.6 billion, so well on track. The second part of the answer is we're focused, hyper-focused on the 3.5x leverage ratio by the end of 2027, and we're going to hit that. So it's probably the most effective way to answer your question there, Aravinda. Over to you, Curtis.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Yeah, clearly, just to pile on, in my role, the 3.5 leverage target is obviously something we're going to hit. We'll make our way there. Then in terms of Mission Flats, obviously a year ago, there was one-time revenue; it was about CAD 100 million. Pretty good flow-through, and G7 was- we didn't give specific numbers, but in the mid CAD 30 million of revenue. Quite a big impact sequentially.

[Aravinda Galappatthige, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

That's very helpful. Thank you.

[Operator]

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

[Matthew Griffiths, Analyst at Bank of America]

Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Two, just on timing. With the Saskatchewan data center, in the first half of next year, one of the first phases we'll, I guess, start generating revenue. Sorry. What pace should we expect for the following phases? Is it like a month between phases, or is it more like a quarter that we should expect the subsequent phases to start being delivered? Again, sort of on timing, I'm really looking for when the PSP partnership, the Network FiberCo kind of partnership in the U.S., might start to play more of a role with a view to when consolidated CapEx for Bell could potentially start to trend lower. Can you share any timing on when their participation in the build could ramp up and your in-footprint participation in the build kind of starts to ramp down? That would be just helpful. Thanks.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Yeah. Hi, Matthew. Thanks for the question. It's Curtis. On the second question in and around Network FiberCo. You're right, the funding doubled in Q2 versus Q1, but it's still CAD 19 million, CAD 20 million of NFC. What you're seeing happening is exactly right. Where we're spending and we're reporting CapEx at the Ziply level, which will ultimately be transferred into Network FiberCo and will reduce our go-forward equity contributions.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Again, whoever has the permits and approvals has to do the building, and we didn't want to slow down our access to the fiber footprint to drive our value for shareholders. Ziply is doing more of the building, as you pointed out, that we will be doing going forward. It's really just a steady ramp of time where more and more of the footprint being built was actually secured on permits and approvals by NFC. Just kind of naturally over time, more of that will be on NFC paper.

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

On the first question around the Saskatchewan data center build, I'd rather not get into specific kind of months. I'd say there are four data halls that we're going to be building. Two data halls each. We have two tenants, two data halls for each tenant, and we'll sequentially be making those data halls available to our tenants. Don't think of months apart. Maybe it's more kind of gapped by quarters. By the end of 2027, we'll be at full run rate on the revenue generation across the four halls.

[Matthew Griffiths, Analyst at Bank of America]

Great. That's very helpful. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question is from Batya Levi from UBS. Please go ahead.

[Batya Levi, Analyst at UBS]

Great. Thank you. A follow-up on Ziply Fiber. Could you put maybe some numbers around the fiber build, where you expect to end the year, and how many homes do you expect to build next year? The revenue growth question: you mentioned that the pricing has been pretty firm. There's a wholesale step down. All in, do you still expect U.S. Ziply Fiber revenues to grow double digits? Thank you.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Hi, Batya. It's Curtis. In terms of LPs, we're still on track to hit 3 million by the end of 2028. We won't get into quarterly or end of this year type LPs. Obviously, we'll disclose that going forward, but I don't want to speculate here and give away too much strategic information in terms of our build plan. Then in terms of revenue, look, it all flows from building fiber, which is why we are consistently focused on the fiber build plan, because, again, the team has demonstrated they can drive subscriber acquisition once they have fiber. Again, we're a bit of a broken record here, but building out the network is the most important thing for us to focus on, and we're getting momentum, but we want to continue to see more and more of it.

[Batya Levi, Analyst at UBS]

Got it. I guess in the U.S. we're also seeing more go-to-market strategy with converged bundles. Has your view changed in terms of potentially adding an MVNO to drive and inflect growth, or are you happy with the penetration targets you're seeing?

[Mirko Bibic, President and CEO at BCE]

On that, thank you, Batya. It's the same approach that we're going to take when we see that penetration gains are flatlining and perhaps a broader offering is needed to get to the next step up in penetration. We'll take a look at it, but as Curtis has shared this morning, our penetration where we have fiber continues to be exactly in line with historical and with the business case when we entered into this. It's looking good. We increased gross adds by 25%, which is the number that Curtis shared. You can see that there's no slowdown in terms of sales in the areas where we have fiber. That's a very good thing.

[Batya Levi, Analyst at UBS]

Got it. Thank you.

[Operator]

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

[Chris Summers, VP of Investor Relations at BCE]

Thank you again for your participation on the call this morning. Richard and I will be available throughout the day for follow-up questions or clarifications. Again, thank you and have a great day.

[Curtis Millen, CFO at BCE]

Thanks, everyone.

[Operator]

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

Participants

Executives

• Chris Summers, VP of Investor Relations
• Mirko Bibic, President and CEO
• Curtis Millen, CFO

Analysts

• Maher Yaghi, Analyst at Scotiabank
• Drew McReynolds, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets
• Sam Schmidt, Analyst at CIBC World Markets
• Vince Valentini, Analyst at TD Securities
• Tim Casey, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets
• Jérôme Dubreuil, Analyst at Desjardins Securities
• Sebastiano Petti, Analyst at JPMorgan
• Aravinda Galappatthige, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity
• Matthew Griffiths, Analyst at Bank of America
• Batya Levi, Analyst at UBS