Operator
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to BCE’s Third Quarter 2016 Results Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Thane Fotopoulos. Please go ahead, Mr. Fotopoulos.
BCE Inc. (BCE)
Q3 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 3, 2016
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Operator
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to BCE’s Third Quarter 2016 Results Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Thane Fotopoulos. Please go ahead, Mr. Fotopoulos.
Thane Fotopoulos
Management
Thank you, Valerie and good morning to everyone on the call. Welcome to our third quarter earnings conference call. With me here today as usual are George Cope, BCE’s President and CEO as well as our CFO, Glen LeBlanc. As a reminder, our Q3 results package and other disclosure documents, including today’s slide presentation, are available on BCE’s Investor Relations webpage. An audio replay and transcript of this call will also be made available on our website. However, before we get started, I want to draw your attention to our Safe Harbor notice on Slide 2. Information in this presentation and remarks made by the speakers today will contain statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and therefore subject to risks and uncertainties. Results may differ materially. We disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by law. Factors that may affect future results are contained in BCE’s filings with both the Canadian Securities Commissions and the SEC and are also available on our corporate website. So, with that, I will turn the call over to George to begin the Q3 review.
George Cope
Management
Great. Thank you, Thane. Good morning and thank you for joining us. Let me begin by sharing a few highlights of this past quarter. BCE produced another quarter of consistent financial execution as total service revenue growth of 1.8% and continued cost control drove an increase of an EBITDA of 2.2% and an expansion in the margin to 41.4%. Year-to-date, the company’s free cash flow has grown 10.6%. Once again, the Bell team produced outstanding wireless subscriber and financial performance with strong net add momentum and ARPU growth resulting in 5.2% service revenue growth and 5% EBITDA growth. Our broadband share of TV and internet subscribers continued to grow as we added 76,000 net adds in the quarter. We concluded our ninth consecutive of positive wireline EBITDA growth, while adding to our industry leading wireline margin of 41.7%. The media division continued its consistent performance and revenue growth of 3.5% producing EBITDA growth of 2.2% and an increase in contribution to BCE’s cash flow of 3.8% in the quarter. The wireless network and fiber internet networks once again were confirmed as the fastest in Canada. Bell’s network leadership is clearly beginning to resonate with Canadians in our results. I am proud today also to announce that Bell has become the first major TV provider to offer its TV service on Apple TV. The Apple TV 4 Gen product will be offered as a secondary set-top box in the home beginning next week. Our Bell stores will be distributing the product beginning next week. This exciting development with Apple ensures Bell’s Fibe TV continues its innovation and leadership position in Canada. Our IPTV platform and development leadership has clearly been recognized by one of the world’s leading technology companies and we continue to stay ahead of our competitors with our TV…
Glen LeBlanc
CFO
Thank you, George and good morning everyone. I will start with some high level comments on our key financial highlights for Q3 on Slide 10. Service revenue was up 1.8%, our strongest quarterly performance in the past year and this was driven by continued solid growth across our wireless, wireline residential and media operations. Low margin product revenues decreased 7% year-over-year, once again, this was a result of the competitively driven wireless handset discounting and lower wireline business data equipment sales due to the soft economy and lower overall telecom spending by large enterprise customers. Adjusted EBITDA increased a very solid 2.2% on the third consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth across all three Bell operating segments. Consistent with this EBITDA growth, as George mentioned, margin also improved, increasing 0.5% to an impressive 41.4%. Adjusted EPS of $0.91 was in line with our plan, but down from the $0.93 last year mainly as a result of the $0.03 mark-to-market gain on equity derivatives due to a sharp increase in BCE share price in the same quarter of 2015. Higher EBITDA was the main factor supporting free cash flow growth of 3.3% in the quarter and this was achieved despite a $41 million and higher year-over-year capital spending. So overall, another very good quarter of consolidated financial performance consistent with our full year guidance targets demonstrating yet again our clear focus on subscriber profitability and price discipline in the face of sustained market competition across all our customer and product segments. Turning to Slide 11, our wireless segment another excellent quarter financial results with service revenues up 5.7% driven by higher postpaid subscriber mix, data usage growth and a greater percentage of customers on 2-year contracts, which collectively drove blended ARPU growth of 3.7%. Similar to the previous couple of quarters,…
Thane Fotopoulos
Operator
Thanks Glen, so before we get started with the Q&A period given the number of questions in the queue and keep the call as efficient as possible, please limit yourselves to one question and a brief followup. To the extent we have time we will circle back at the end of the call. So Valerie with that, we are ready to take our first question.
Operator
Operator
Thank you, Mr. Fotopoulos. We will now take questions from the telephone lines [Operator Instructions] Thank you for your patience. Our first question is from Richard Choe with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Richard Choe
Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead
Great, thank you. Just wanted little bit more color on the service revenue growth, can we continue to see ARPU move up at this rate and what is driving that?
George Cope
Management
So on the wireless ARPU specifically, I think that’s what you are asking on, service revenue growth, I mean, it’s clearly two for one is the growth in subscribers which has been stronger I think than we had even expected at the beginning of the year and secondly, clearly it’s to your point in the average revenue per customer and what we saw in the summer again, and I would think we were also surprised given how strong ARPU growth was last year, people might recall in this quarter, again as the growth as people moved to our LTE advance network and the speeds that they are able to access, we saw an increasing usage of 35% year-over-year and so it’s really the incremental usage that’s driving some of the incremental average revenue that we are seeing. It’s hard to know what will continue going forward but certainly based on what we are seeing, the demand to use the network is growing as a result that’s giving us this significant top line revenue growth.
Richard Choe
Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead
And in terms of better the environment has anything changed since the end of the quarter or is it sill kind of heavily commercial on the handsets?
George Cope
Management
It’s aggressive, I don’t know if it’s more aggressive. But we are coming into what is traditionally the most aggressive season and as we enter into November, December, we had expected to be as intensive competitively as it always is given how important that quarter is from a sales perspective.
Richard Choe
Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead
Alright, thank you.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Phillip Huang with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Phillip Huang
Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead
Hi, thanks. Good morning. You know, question on the postpaid net add site, I would like to see the strong performance this quarter particularly given the strong financials as well? I was wondering if you could provide some regional color on the strong performance where you’ve seen the strongest momentum, is it Western Canada, any momentum or pretty balance overall?
George Cope
Management
Actually it was balanced. Overall, I actually took a specific look at that over the last couple of weeks to see if there was one specific geography that we saw strength and I would say it was across the board. We clearly saw net adds in really every one of the markets. It was a very strong quarter clearly for it looks like pretty industrial though there is one still to report and so we are able to through our execution we think in our specification the focus on the network, speed, and ad advantage we now are generating in the market is really driving the incremental ARPU for us and a good market share of the net adds.
Phillip Huang
Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead
That’s really helpful.
George Cope
Management
It was across the board though.
Phillip Huang
Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead
Right and very similar question on the fixed line side as well certainly your subscribers continue to reflect pretty continued intense competition in the market particularly for Fibe TV this quarter. I was wondering if you could similarly provide us some regional color are you seeing a bigger delta in competition whether it’s in Ontario or Quebec or Atlantic Canada? Thanks.
George Cope
Management
I would think specifically in Southern Ontario was most aggressive on the pricing side as we’ve seen – we saw pretty aggressive pricing from one of our competitors there and that’s in one sense reflected on our results and we are sticking to our discipline of growing the EBITDA and making sure we are driving through our IPTV to pull the broadband subscribers through and that continues to be the strategy. It’s probably one of the reasons on this call, we would normally, we shared also the growth we saw where we have FTTN and FTTH from an Internet perspective. So the people could see that there is some pretty strong underlying growth there where we are making those investments. But it was a particularly aggressive quarter in Southern Ontario.
Phillip Huang
Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead
Thanks George.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Maher Yaghi with Desjardins Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Maher Yaghi
Analyst · Desjardins Capital Markets. Please go ahead
Yes, thank you. So I wanted to ask you about your go to market strategy, as you mentioned, you have so far resisted, you know, the view of matching or going out and being aggressive and gaining market share. But when you look at the investments that you are making in fiber-to-the-home, how long, I mean, or let’s say in order to deliver financial results on those investments that you are making on fiber-to-the-home, traditionally, we would assume that you need to gain market share at a faster pace than what you are seeing right now. So, I guess how long can a company continue to resist in order to protect profitability when the competition doesn’t seem to be constrained in its promotional activity?
George Cope
Management
Well that’s a long question. Let me try to answer the best I can. I think this management’s track record of finding the balance for our shareholders, we need subscriber growth, cash flow growth and EBITDA growth maybe is best shown in this quarter with our wireless results relative to our number one peer. But we are generating both financial strength and subscriber strength. So that probably speaks to our approach to the marketplace, I think also when I talk about our broadband Internet ads in the footprint that I have identified that isn’t – part of that is intended to make sure investors understand just how well that strategy is executing for us. And I think, if people were to look at our IPTV net adds on TV against our competitors, we took significant share on the TV side in that footprint. So I think, we are on track. It’s aggressive, and of course you always have to balance the question you are asked. We hopefully, have that balance correct and we will continue every quarter to have to – to make those decisions above with EBITDA growth in wireline, cash flow growth of 10% year-to-year and those strong overall subscriber results, we are really pleased with the quarter on balance given the competitive dynamics.
Maher Yaghi
Analyst · Desjardins Capital Markets. Please go ahead
And just a follow-up, thank you for that. And just in terms of the – in the territory that you have the footprint where you have fiber deployed, how much of the satellite pluses are switching to your own Fibe TV or is it namely going to other ISPs or I mean, in terms of resellers?
George Cope
Management
Yes, it’s, I think, we talked about it in the past anywhere from 10% or so. But I think in the last quarter, it was more about 6% in our footprint. And so, on the satellite side, one of the reasons I mentioned earlier, we’re thinking outside of our IPTV footprint. We can probably compete a little more aggressively on the satellite side in the markets where there is not the IPTV conversion market going on. So we will look to do that going forward in the marketplace. But there is not a lot of conversion now from our satellite to IPTV, there is a lot of, we don’t have as many subs left in that particular footprint.
Maher Yaghi
Analyst · Desjardins Capital Markets. Please go ahead
Thank you, George.
George Cope
Management
My pleasure, thanks.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Jeff Fan with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Jeff Fan
Analyst · Scotiabank. Please go ahead
Thanks, good morning. One quick clarification, and then the question about the TV market, on the clarification, George, you mentioned the – you broke down your ads related to on Internet related to FTTX and outside FTTX, wondering if there is any distinguish difference between what’s going on inside your FTTH versus just the FTTN footprint, in terms of Internet ads?
George Cope
Management
Yes, better. That is where we have the fiber – one of the reasons we continue to accelerate fiber. Overall, I want to give the FTTX number, so people could understand the difference between the two because clearly therefore in the footprint without FTTX meaning for investors on the line, FTTN or FTTH, when I do that, that’s clearly, we don’t have either those footprints where we see that in essence a decline in internet subs. But yes clearly where we had FTTH is where we see the strongest results and that’s why we continue to make the investment and why we are going to do that over the next decade.
Jeff Fan
Analyst · Scotiabank. Please go ahead
And then a question on TV, I mean Bell is obviously the leader in technology platform, functionality, user interface etcetera, do you guys continue to integrate with other platforms like Apple TV just announced today, but as you look ahead is it, do you think customers are – the market is shifting to a point where functionality and technology platform really makes the difference to drive better TV ads or do you think it requires a change in packaging and pricing of channels or offering to the core market, I don’t know if that’s big right now for you to go after, I am wondering if you can give us your thoughts on that?
George Cope
Management
Yes. Well, I – first I want to be – dismiss of the question gives questions an important one, it is a mix of all of those and we are having to as industry is so competitive clearly we have to repackage based on the consumer preference. And we have got to do that to drive the market share. The technology differentiation is our leader with IPTV. But some times it stands up and gets subscriber, other times it doesn’t. So some times you may have to obviously do price packaging that might be more aggressive. And then in terms of the OTT world I think we were most focused on at the moment is learning to our launch of the Crave product where really customers who want to subscribe the service over the top can do that now with Crave. And we think with a fairly competitive product we think the Canadian development recently probably positioned that product a little stronger in the marketplace. And with some of the announcements you will see on Crave coming up, some of them referred too on our press release with some first run content on Crave, we think we are putting our foot into that marketplace and make sure we are trying to meet the demand there as we go forward. And we are quite frankly learning as we go through the demands that the consumer wants to see from a product perspective.
Jeff Fan
Analyst · Scotiabank. Please go ahead
Okay. Thanks, George.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Drew McReynolds with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Drew McReynolds
Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead
Thanks very much. Good morning and George two questions for me and I won’t have a follow-up, I am sure. Just can you comment just two quarters into this up-tick in gross – wireless gross additions across the industry, can you just kind of comment again on kind of what you think the source of that is just because it’s benefiting everyone, it looks like the market has expanded somehow. And then second one just a big picture, when we look down in the U.S. we are obviously seeing Verizon, AT&T branch out in a content and in some instances expand geographically and that’s perceived to be due to just slowing core revenue growth in their core business, can you just talk about what you are seeing here in Canada in terms of that growth outlook and where are you seeing new revenue opportunities? Thanks.
George Cope
Management
Yes. On the wireless subscriber side, I think it is fair to say the industry including the analyst community we have all been pleasantly surprised by the strength in the industry. There is – and we are as we go forward here also learning this as to what we are – why is this demand accelerated so quickly. And I think there are some things we are seeing clearly to the expansion of these networks and our LTE advanced network does bring product and broadband solutions and quite frankly you can imagine are going to be available on wireless. I think that’s increasing in demand for our services. I think if we look at the new entrant market they are doing fine, but the rapid growth there were seeing in the last few years is clearly not in their results, that’s seems to have leveled off. So I think there is probably some market share change there. I think the second line addition in the marketplace is happening in Canada possibly behind where the U.S. was a couple of years ago, where the separation of people from their business line into consumer line continues to grow in Canada. And I think that probably started in the U.S. earlier than it is happening in Canada. And then I also think just generally across the population. And this products become so important, there is probably some demographic of that, we are probably moving down the age curve on this product and seeing that growth as we enter the fall every year as people return to school almost at quite younger and younger ages, that’s probably part of it. And then overall the immigration in the country, when we talk about 300,000 new Canadians a year, clearly they are going to be subscribers to wireless services and that allows for some incremental growth as well. I mean that’s where we would generally frame it. And then I think probably a little stronger economy people have talked about in some other provinces where there is a lot of population that can’t hurt the overall industry, it can only help it. That’s our view.
Drew McReynolds
Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead
That’s great and just on the big picture kind of revenue growth outlook?
George Cope
Management
Well, I mean we had a stronger quarter in the third quarter we would hope it’s an outlook that we will have a stronger fourth quarter on our revenue across I was pleased with the wireline revenue being a little bit up and I think Glen talked about that. So I mean our guidance isn’t changing this morning and certainly we feel better in this second half than we did in the first half on the overall revenue for the company and particularly with this underlying wireless growth that we are seeing here on the revenue side.
Drew McReynolds
Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead
Okay. Thank you.
George Cope
Management
Thanks.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Aravinda Galappatthige with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Aravinda Galappatthige
Analyst · Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. George I just wonder if you can expand a bit on the improvement that you have alluded to on the B2B front, obviously it’s been in decline mode albeit relatively steady for a while now, I mean is there any sign of sustained improvement there or is that just smaller segments that are kind of going in your favor?
George Cope
Management
We did have a little better quarter year-over-year and one, we will take it to – we hope it turns into a trend. I would also say on the calling out our small business group is doing a little better year-over-year. We are probably competing there a little more aggressively, but it’s helping us to maintain customers and on the B2B side there had been some large wins and win-backs that we have which will help us actually into next year. So overall, that’s not a – for investors we are not positive yet on the revenue side on the B2B side. But that decline was better quarter-over-quarter and of course if that stabilizes that helps your overall wireline story, but still lots of work there to do.
Aravinda Galappatthige
Analyst · Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead
And just to as a follow-up to that, the declines on the business and losses that shouldn’t be seen as any kind of lead indicator with it?
George Cope
Management
No, I wouldn’t I mean we – when these federal election there was a lot of lines that go in and out and we would try to call that out here and things happens to take some other folks with detail on that. But basically that’s really what happened on the B2B side.
Aravinda Galappatthige
Analyst · Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead
Thank you.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Batya Levi with UBS. Please go ahead.
Batya Levi
Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead
Great. Thank you. On the wireless side, you mentioned that the upgrade activity was low in the quarter, can you provide a bit of color into the 4Q, do you anticipate that to pickup. And should we assume that the COA and retention was up year-over-year and that continues in the fourth quarter as well?
Glen LeBlanc
CFO
Yes. I think on both, COA and retention will be a little bit year-over-year as it was in this quarter. The volume was down, remember last year we were into the first full quarter of the double cohort. So volume was a little different, but costs are up. Costs are really up in Canada on COA. One, the mix of customers who want the high-end smartphones and secondly the dollar working against us year-over-year starting to impact as that goes through the financials and we will have obviously an impact with the dollar versus a year ago. See, I would expect both COA and our cost of retention to be slightly up. But we will have to see, I mean frankly you can change so dramatically depending on the competitive intensity and you could end up as much as $10 a unit, higher. You could end up $10 a unit lower depending on what’s happening in the market on intensity perspective.
Batya Levi
Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead
Got it. Thanks. And one follow-up on the wireline side if I could, can you provide a little bit more color in terms of the specifics you were seeing on KPIs when you compare your fiber to the home footprint or this fiber to the node, maybe in terms of ARPU or churn, I am assuming probably [indiscernible] is better, but any number that you could put around that?
George Cope
Management
I mean a couple – I will just comment on the churn rate is better. Our market share is better in markets that we have. And importantly for us the operating costs and so the call backs that we call truck rolls visiting customers because of issues are about a third less. And so those are the numbers we have. And a lot of those come from the number of years we have operated in the alliance footprint as we began to build out now the Ontario, Quebec and Quebec has actually got a fairly significant fiber footprint, Ontario, now with the folks in Toronto. So all the metrics that I have described drive us to want to continue with that investment knowing that ultimately the speed requirements in the home will only grow and the number of devices it has to home are only going to grow. So that is why we continue that investment.
Batya Levi
Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Simon Flannery with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Simon Flannery
Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead
Great, thank you very much. George, I wonder if you could just give us a little bit more of an update on the billed plans for fiber-to-the-home, where are you currently and how is the pacing and the costing going versus your plans and we have seen Verizon and Google and other look a lot more closely at the fixed wireless for that sort of last drop from the street to the home, how are you thinking about fixed wireless 5G in this context? Thanks.
George Cope
Management
So, FTTN and our FFTH in total is about $8.5 million. We are at about $2.8 million on fiber and that continues on the track that we have outlined. Our big focus this year or next year is in the 416 of Toronto and some other markets that we will be investing. So, we will talk about guidance in February, but somewhere between 500,000, 650,000 households a year is probably going to turn out to be our targeted rollout. And as I said, we think that will run through for quite a period of time. And then on the 5G, I think that was the second part of your question, it’s – we are doing some trials. We think it’s quite a ways away from a investment perspective and deployment, particularly what we are seeing with the roadmap we are on now. And ultimately, possibly our fiber roadmap in that we have talked about getting to 80% to 85% of our footprint over time, but maybe at the end that’s not that extensive, because some of those secondary markets can be supported by 5G, but at the end of the day you are billing the fiber literally to the premise with that structure anyway. And so it will be an interesting decision we will have to make at that point in time. But for our investors, we are perfectly positioned to move at the pace that requires and if it turns out going right to that last premise and some of those secondary markets, it is more cost effective with the technology that’s not in the market today at that time than we could look at it then. But right now, our core focus is we think fiber will still be the best avenue and 5G will be a layover – overlay for wireless as the next evolution of speed for wireless.
Simon Flannery
Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead
Great, thank you.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Michael Rollins with Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Michael Rollins
Analyst · Citigroup. Please go ahead
Hi, thanks for taking the question. I was wondering if you can get an update on some of the key regulatory initiatives around the mobile side, the fiber wholesale side and any other key issues that you are watching the development of? Thanks.
George Cope
Management
Yes, I think maybe the fiber wholesale where there are some missions going on now and then we will wait into next year as to what the pricing for that access to the fiber for resale will be. And so that’s probably one file that we are watching carefully. On the wireless side, there are always ongoing files. I think the major one for us would be this particular resale of what fiber will be. And clearly, we were disappointed in the recent decision on the FTTN pricing on a wholesale perspective. We don’t think that was certainly not positive for BCE and we will have to manage through that as we go forward into next year. Thank you.
Michael Rollins
Analyst · Citigroup. Please go ahead
And so just to follow-up on that real quick, so what would be your expectations for the outcome of the fiber wholesale proceeding?
George Cope
Management
Well, the outcome of it will be what is the resale price and we will be hopeful of that resale price is set in a way that ensure that Canadians can continue to see broadband investment by large companies with infrastructure projects like ours and the cable operators and that will have to be reflected in the wholesale pricing. Otherwise, those type of investments can be curtailed. And particularly in the secondary markets, which isn’t something we want to see happen nor with anyone in Canada want to see happen. So, we just have to see how that process unfolds and what those pricings are and we will have to obviously course adjust depending on the outcome of that process.
Michael Rollins
Analyst · Citigroup. Please go ahead
Thanks very much.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from Greg MacDonald with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Greg MacDonald
Analyst · Macquarie. Please go ahead
Thanks. Good morning, guys. George, quick question on the descriptors that you gave for the gross adds in the industry, those were quite interesting actually and all of the ones that you indicated seem to me to be sustainable trends, would you agree with that and have you seen evidence in the 4Q and are your expectations for 2017 are they all that – you will continue to see a positive impact on gross adds for the industry next year? That would be helpful. And then I have a quick follow-up. Thanks.
George Cope
Management
Greg, I think it’s too early to make that call. I think as all the analysts on the call will know and you will know, I mean this is two quarters of strong numbers, but I think all of us till we get underneath completely what’s driving it, but it’s hard to turn this into an outlook for the next 15 months. What we are really pleased with though is from an investors perspective is the underlying use of our product by our entire base arguably is driving as much revenue growth as the net adds. The continual focus on net adds is important, but the real focus and where the significant money in the industry is coming from is the increased uses of these products because of our networks which are – I talked about it a lot I know, but being rated as the fastest in the world almost in terms of our wireless service, certainly North America. And what we will be doing next year with carrier aggregation taking it to another level again with speed we think that’s what’s going to continue to drive the revenue growth in the industry and then net adds are secondary part of that. But boy, it’s early to make a call on next year, at least certainly too early for us to.
Greg MacDonald
Analyst · Macquarie. Please go ahead
Okay, I appreciate that. So, the follow-ons related to what your description just was, so we have seen some evidence from Rogers that they are looking to advertise a product that allows small business customers to drop their landline and go mark for a business line and I am getting the sense that, that’s at least part of what we are seeing on the gross add front on wireless? Are the economics attractive enough for the industry and for you in particular to take that type of approach as well, because we are seeing systemic declines on the access line for business as well, if you can beat them, join them I guess is the question? Are the economics attractive enough to do that?
George Cope
Management
Well, I would say the amount of wireless substitution for small business is actually fairly small. We will see how our competitor does in the marketplace, but we believe our wireline products are vastly superior to anything the wireless industry is offering for small business on the wireline side and that’s our focus. And there are those that have total mobile businesses with clearly wireless and we are in that space, but we don’t think that’s had literally any impact on us at all in our company.
Greg MacDonald
Analyst · Macquarie. Please go ahead
Okay. Alright, thanks, George.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Tim Casey with BMO. Please go ahead.
Tim Casey
Analyst · BMO. Please go ahead
Thanks. George, could you flush out a bit more what you are seeing on the competitors’ side on wireline in terms of the nature of the customers you are getting? You have stressed that obviously wherever you deploy fiber you are seeing better share. I am just wondering your primary wireline competitors have responded with aggressive internet offers and I am just wondering what you are seeing in terms of your ability to compete with that? Is it still the functionality on the video side or are you having to match on pricing on internet? Thanks.
George Cope
Management
Yes, it’s good question. I want to be a little careful in the competitive questions on a conference call obviously, Tim, but I would say our focus continues to be for us that we know we have a vastly superior video products in the marketplace and that is our lead product. And the pull-through from our broadband shows up in our numbers, where we secondarily have FTTH built out. Clearly, we have the superior internet product second to none in the world and in that case we can push both those products so we can even leave with FTTH and that will of course evolve as we add more footprint. So, it is a combined solution, alright. I mean, it’s for the consumer, it’s an aggressive market. It has been and everyone is trying to get their fair share of the growth in the industry and we are – we think we are achieving that balance and we will continue that to make sure we are competitive though and it changes market by market, province by province and city by city, it seems every quarter. And as I mentioned, I think it’s been particularly aggressive in Southern Ontario.
Tim Casey
Analyst · BMO. Please go ahead
Thank you.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Vince Valentini with TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Vince Valentini
Analyst · TD Securities. Please go ahead
Yes, thanks very much. George, you mentioned that the FTTN internet resale decision would be negative for you I assume it hasn’t been your focus in the last 15 hours, but COGECO didn’t lower their guidance by $20 million partly due to that decision. Is there anyway you can quantify it? I have got to imagine BCE’s exposure is quantums of what COGECO’s is on an absolute basis?
George Cope
Management
Yes. I think what I would say is our guidance hasn’t changed for this year and the impact of that will be in our guidance for 2017 in total, but also I think very important overall for BCE scale for our shareholders. And we believe our fourth quarter execution positioned us well to continue our capital market strategy. Having said on that very specific file, yes it’s not a positive decision. We think it has the risk to mitigate investment in broadband. And so obviously, we are following that and I wasn’t aware of that change with one of our competitors. But I can imagine because overall for everyone it is a re-price on wholesale on the FTTN side.
Vince Valentini
Analyst · TD Securities. Please go ahead
Thank you.
Thane Fotopoulos
Operator
Valerie, it seems that we are headed towards the end of our hour. This will be our last question.
Operator
Operator
Certainly. Our last question is from Rob Peters with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Rob Peters
Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead
Thanks for squeezing me in. Just a question on data, I am looking at the IPTV side with Fibe app being available on Apple TV, is that going to count against household data cap, if they use that as their second cable box and then any kind of – sorry IPTV box. And then any color around how that might be considered given the current differentiated pricing practices here going on at the CRTC right now?
George Cope
Management
We were anticipating that customers will subscribe to unlimited internet packages which we offer in the marketplace to leverage that product which of course for us drives incremental revenue for our investors on the line, for our customers a pretty unique experience is the only one in the marketplace that has the Apple TV capability with our Fibe app. So we are really excited about that positioning. And I think most exciting is getting that recognition from I think is clearly everyone would know one of the world’s technology companies recognizing our leadership in TV, that’s probably one of the real proud moments for us this morning. So with that maybe thank you.
Thane Fotopoulos
Operator
Thank you to everybody on the call this morning who participated. As usual I will be available throughout the day for clarifications and follow-ups on that. Thanks everybody again and have a great day.
Operator
Operator
Thank you, gentlemen. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time. And we thank you for your participation.