Rogers Communications Inc. said the decline in its wireless service revenue is mainly due to lower fee revenues as a result of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)'s decision to eliminate activation and modification fees.
The telecommunications and media company on Friday released its third-quarter earnings results, reporting a one per cent drop in wireless service revenue to $2.03 billion. The company said that, aside from the CRTC's new ban, the decrease was a result of the decline in mobile phone average revenue per user due to the impact of intense competition.
"The full run rate for the decision was felt in the quarter," chief financial officer Glenn Brandt told investors during the company's earnings call. "These fees… were initially designed to recover specific costs within our business, and so we're now moving back to finding alternatives for covering those costs."
In mid-June, the CRTC implemented new consumer protections that prohibit service providers from charging fees whenever Canadians choose to modify or cancel their cellphone and internet service plans.
The regulator in July asked Rogers, along with BCE Inc. 's Bell Canada and Telus Corp. , to prove they're not violating this after the telcos introduced different fees following the ban. Rogers, for example, introduced a $40 device setup charge, a $25 shipping charge and an unspecified SIM fee.
Brandt said mobile phone average revenue per user in the third quarter declined 2.6 per cent to $55.22 as a result of the immediate impact from the CRTC ban, together with the lagging impact of competition from prior quarters, most notably in the fourth and first quarters.
Rogers said the decline was partially offset by the year-to-date cumulative addition of new customers.
Meanwhile, it said the postpaid gross and net additions decreases in the quarter were primarily a result of "promotional discipline and lower overall market activity" in Canada.
"While volumes were down for us and more broadly for the industry through the first nine months of 2026, we continued to execute with discipline in a less active market," chief executive Tony Staffieri said.
The company's total revenue went up by two per cent to $5.44 billion and total service revenue increased by one per cent to $4.78 billion in the quarter, primarily because of revenue growth in its media business.
Media revenue increased by nine per cent to $821 million, as a result of higher sports revenue and subscriber revenue from the Warner Bros. Discovery suite of channels, partially offset by lower advertising revenue.
Earlier this month, the company completed its minority interest acquisition of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) for $4.35 billion in cash.
Rogers' net income for the quarter was down 91 per cent to $495 million from $5.77 billion largely due to an accounting comparison from MLSE when it included a one-time $5 billion non-cash gain in net income last year following the MLSE transaction from Bell.
Removing this impact, its adjusted net income comes to $701 million for the quarter, a three per cent decrease from the prior year.
