Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BCE Q3 2021 Results Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Thane Fotopoulos. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Mo, and good morning to everybody. With me here today are Mirko Bibic, BCE's President and CEO, and Glen LeBlanc, our CFO. You can find all of our Q3 disclosure documents on the investor relations page of the bce.ca website, which we posted this morning. Before we begin, I'd like to draw your attention to our safe harbor statement, reminding you that today's slide presentation and remarks made by Mirko and Glen 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 the company's publicly filed documents for more details on assumptions and risks. With that, I'll hand it over to Mirko.
Thank you, Thane, and good morning, everyone. Our Q3 results demonstrate another quarter of consistently strong and disciplined execution across all our operating segments that is firmly rooted in a strategic roadmap that has guided us over the past 18 months. Operationally, our objective was to improve steadily each quarter from the troughs experienced in Q2 of 2020 when COVID began to significantly affect our business, and that's exactly what we've done. Q3 marked a very notable milestone in our recovery as total revenue and adjusted EBITDA are, for all intents and purposes, back to pre-pandemic Q3 2019 levels, with consolidated service revenue up 3.6% and EBITDA 4.2% higher than last year, despite ongoing COVID-related headwinds affecting wireless roaming, business wireline customer spending, and media advertising.
Even as we focus on recovering from those impacts, we pushed ahead with our CapEx acceleration plan, building the best broadband infrastructure and remaining comfortably on track to hit our upsized network expansion targets for 2021. We invested another CAD 1.2 billion in new capital this quarter, 12% higher than last year, on direct fiber and fixed wireless connections, as well as further expanding mobile 5G coverage and deploying 3.5 gigahertz capable radios as we continue to get ready for the launch of true 5G next year. We leveraged our accelerated broadband network plan, retail channel strength, improved direct sales capabilities, and multi-brand strategy to deliver 266,919 total mobile phone, mobile connected device, retail internet, and IPTV net additions in Q3, an increase of 10% over last year.
In wireless, our sharp focus on higher value mobile phone loadings continues to pay off. Based on peers who have already reported Q3 results, we led the Canadian industry once again this quarter in terms of wireless service revenue, ARPU, and EBITDA growth. These metrics really matter in terms of providing an indication of the health of our underlying business, not just today, but also going forward. As our smartphone customer base grows, roaming rebounds, the decline in data overage reaches an equilibrium point, and 5G revenues materialize more meaningfully, these levers should continue to support superior future revenue growth and operating profitability. I would also add that we achieve these results against the backdrop of lower wireless prices as we continue to make more lower-priced options available that deliver significant value to consumers and support the government's public policy objectives.
According to the most recent Stats Can data, pricing for wireless services has declined 25% since September 2019, at a time when overall inflation has been growing rapidly, while the price Canadians pay for all goods and services combined has actually increased 5%. For Bell wireline, as our broadband fiber footprint advantage keeps expanding, we see the immediate tangible benefits on residential subscriber growth, market share, and internet revenue. In fact, this past quarter, we delivered the highest number of internet net adds in 15 years and strong residential internet revenue growth of 9%. Clearly, the strategy is working. It's the reason why we're so confident in our accelerated capital investment plan.
In business wireline, as the team continues to carefully manage near-term COVID financial impacts, which Glen will detail momentarily, our organization is also focused on putting the building blocks in place to ensure Bell is strategically well-positioned to capture an industry-leading share of the IoT and next-generation solutions revenue enabled by the convergence of 5G and fiber. As you know, I have a lot of optimism for the growth potential in this area. There are going to be thousands of applications, and they'll need access to our advanced broadband networks, edge data centers, and IoT platforms.
We are already leading the way in building momentum with innovative new consumer and business applications that leverage the speed and ultra-low latency of Bell's leading 5G network, as certified by PCMag, Ookla, and Global Wireless Solutions in their most recent studies of mobile network performance and new MEC alliances with AWS and Google Cloud, which we discussed last quarter. Recent 5G consumer initiatives include the launch of TSN 5G View and an augmented reality collaboration with TikTok. On the enterprise side of things, we're working with Canadian AI startup Tiny Mile to provide 5G connectivity for its growing fleet of food delivery robots in downtown Toronto.
We also entered into a partnership with VMware to offer their advanced cloud software, which builds on Bell's agreement with AWS to support 5G innovation and accelerate cloud adoption across Canada. Notably, Bell is the first Canadian communications provider to offer AWS-powered 5G multi-access edge computing for business and government customers. Most recently, our business markets unit launched Smart Supply Chain, powered by Bell IoT Smart Connect, a software-as-a-service IoT aggregation solution designed for fleet and supply chain operators. Just earlier this week, we announced our newest collaboration with Esri, Canada's leading geographic information systems provider, to create smart city IoT solutions for municipal governments across the country. At Bell Media, TV advertising continued to strengthen with audiences that remain industry-leading. In fact, TV advertising revenue this quarter was 10% ahead of pre-COVID Q3 2019 levels.
That speaks to the breadth and quality of our programming that differentiates us from domestic broadcasters and foreign content producers alike. Even though the recovery in radio and out-of-home was suppressed by the pandemic's fourth wave, results are better than last year. Ultimately, advertiser demand will come back once normal activity resumes with a broader reopening. That's the traditional side of our media business. I have tremendous optimism for our digital-first strategy. The goal is to grab a bigger share of the digital ad spend in Canada, where global internet and social media platforms dominate today. We will grab a bigger share with our asset mix and investments in ad tech and digital content platforms, and by leveraging big data insights. The strategy is working. We're seeing continued momentum there.
Digital revenues now represents 22% of total Bell Media revenue, up from 9% only four years ago. A lot of potential in the media business going forward. We're continuing to make good progress as well on a number of Bell for Better ESG initiatives. We're already taking concrete actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. In support of World Climate Action Day on October 15th, we announced that we have saved 71 kilotons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions since 2008 and purchased more than 175 new electric vehicles that will be put into service by year-end. Bell has also partnered with Université de Sherbrooke to develop solar technology that will help reduce our reliance on diesel generators to power communications towers used to connect remote communities.
Recent field tests of the solar optimization technology have achieved diesel fuel reductions of 75%, significantly exceeding our goal of 40%. I'll now turn to slide five for an overview of some key operating metrics for Q3, and I'm gonna start with wireless. The back-to-school period this year felt more like 2019, with all retail stores reopened and increased consumer activity. We added 115,000 new net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, up a strong 46% compared to Q3 of last year, and even 22,000 higher than Q3 of 2019. Notably, this result reflects significant year-over-year growth on the Bell brand. That's very positive. Customers are coming back into stores, so pent-up demand helped drive higher transaction volumes. We're also so much better at direct and digital channel sales than we were a year ago.
Postpaid churn of 0.93% was our lowest ever Q3 result and five basis points better than last year, even with the step-up in competitive intensity that's typical and expected during this time of the year. That said, we were quite measured and more targeted in our competitive approach during Q3. I've said this before, but our objective is not to lead in gross loadings. The goal is to get the right amount of market share and focus on higher-value smartphone subscribers to grow service revenue and ARPU. Wireless service revenue in Q3 was up an industry-leading 5%, yielding 2.3% higher ARPU. ARPU growth was more modest at 1.1%, due mainly to a higher mix of bring your own device customers in the subscriber base versus last year and more postpaid customers on expired equipment installment plans.
For mobile connected devices, although we added 71,000 new IoT subscriptions, up 73% over last year, total net adds, as you'll see, were only 33,000 as we continue to move away from unprofitable, low ARPU data device transactions. In prepaid, we added 22,000 new customers, which is our best quarterly result in the past year. Solid performance that is expected to improve as immigration and international travel resume more fully. Turning to wireline. Again, really a very strong quarter from an RGU perspective with 34,000 new net retail customer additions, more than two and a half times higher than last year. This is only the second quarter in the past five years where we've achieved positive total wireline retail net adds, including home phone and satellite TV, which is a testament to the advantages of our accelerated broadband network investments and TV product leadership.
At Bell Internet, we delivered 66,000 retail net customer additions. This is 5% higher than last year when we saw exceptionally strong demand because of COVID. As I said earlier, and it bears repeating, this was our best quarterly result in 15 years. On the TV side of things, also a great result with our best IPTV net add since the third quarter of 2019, as we benefited from the return of sports and a more typical student inward session this year. We added 32,000 new subscribers this quarter, up a strong 68% versus 2020. Satellite net customer losses remain more or less stable compared to last year at around 21,000, while home phone losses improved 14% to 43,000. Turning to Bell Media, as I said, TV advertising was strong.
We're back to the content funnel and timing of that content being what it used to be, both for live sports and other TV programming. On the heels of our most successful upfront season ever, advertiser demand was robust, translating into strong bookings that drove a 25% year-over-year increase in TV advertising revenue. This was supported by leading viewership across all Bell Media properties. TSN and RDS were the top-ranked sports TV channels for Q3 and for the 2020-2021 broadcast year. While our English language entertainment specialty channels achieved record rankings, claiming the top three spots for CTV comedy, Discovery, and CTV drama. Noovo continued to gain viewership over its French language competitors, with audiences up 18% in the current fall TV season.
Consistent with our strategic focus to lean in more aggressively on digital, we continued to make good progress in growing our streaming distribution platforms and digital advertising markets in Q3. Total Crave subs increased 5% over last year, while customers on direct streaming platforms grew a strong 33%. This, together with our rapidly expanding CTV AVOD product and continued scaling of the SAM TV sales tool, contributed to excellent digital revenue growth of 32% in Q3. In summary, our strategic investments in advanced networks and industry-leading services significantly improved customer experience, and outstanding operational execution by the Bell team delivered very strong year-over-year operating results in Q3. Perhaps more importantly, we've brought the business's financial performance back to 2019 levels despite still facing ongoing COVID headwinds.
Thank you, and on that, I'll turn the call over to Glen for a more detailed review of our financial results.
Thank you, Mirko, and good morning, everyone. I'm going to begin on slide six. Our consolidated Q3 financials demonstrated another step forward in our COVID recovery, as well as continued operational excellence and disciplined execution by the Bell team. With positive year-over-year contributions from all Bell operating segments, we delivered strong service revenue growth of 3.6% in Q3. Total revenue was only up 0.8% due to the softer wireline data equipment and mobile device sales versus last year. However, this did not affect overall adjusted EBITDA, which increased a healthy 4.2% as product revenues are generally low margin. Net earnings were up 9.9% year-over-year on the flow-through of strong EBITDA growth and a non-cash net mark-to-market equity derivative gain resulting from the sharp increase in BCE share price this past quarter.
Despite higher earnings, free cash flow was down approximately CAD 460 million this quarter, as expected, due to the higher capital spending under our two-year accelerated broadband network plan, higher cash taxes, and a reduction in cash related to the timing of working capital. Turning to Bell Wireless on slide seven, another strong quarter with service revenue and EBITDA higher than Q3 2019, even without a material benefit from roaming, which improved only marginally this quarter and still remains 55% below pre-pandemic levels. Bell again delivered strong service revenue growth, which increased 5% versus last year. This result was a reflection of strong mobile phone postpaid subscriber base growth over the past year, driven by our disciplined focus on higher value smartphone loadings, higher ARPU as customers move to higher-tiered unlimited plans, and continued strong demand for Bell's IoT solutions.
The decline in data overage revenue improved this quarter despite a 74% increase in unlimited plan subscribers since last year. Product revenue was down 13.6% year-over-year due to lower upgrade volumes and a greater mix of bring your own device customers. The decrease in overall customer transactions can be attributed to the global supply chain handset constraints that we are actively managing with our suppliers. More refurbished premium brand handsets available in the secondary market, as well as subscribers keeping their handsets longer, which is good for us from both a working capital and a customer lifetime value perspective. We believe longer device lifetimes are the positive byproduct of the move to equipment installment plans two years ago and the lack of new iconic handsets to generate buzz and stimulate the market.
That said, these factors did not hamper our ability to generate higher year-over-year subscriber activations this quarter. As for EBITDA, it was up a healthy 5.6%. This was driven by the flow-through of the strong service revenue growth and a 5.6% reduction in operating costs that yielded a 2.8-point increase in margin to 44%. Turn over to slide eight on Bell Wireline. Total service revenue growth in Q3 was positive. This was driven by strong continued residential wireline performance that saw top-line growth of 2.3% on the back of 9% year-over-year increase in internet revenue.
This together with a 1.8% lower operating cost from fiber-related operating efficiencies and the non-recurrence of certain COVID-related costs from last year delivered solid EBITDA growth of 1% with a higher year-over-year margin of 44.2%. In business wireline, we're lapping some pretty tough comps from Q3 of last year when demand for conferencing services and voice connectivity peaked, and data equipment product sales spiked with large enterprise and public sector customers spending on capacity and facilities to connect more employees working remotely. However, on a positive note, as the reopening of the economy takes hold more fully, we are seeing the resumption of some customer spending on projects that were delayed because of COVID and modest growth from new services in the area of cloud computing.
This drove a close to 4% increase in service solutions revenue, which helped maintain the year-over-year rate of the business service revenue decline relatively stable when compared to the first two quarters of '21. Moving to slide nine on Bell Media. In short, a strong set of financial results for Q3 as the recovery to pre-COVID levels of performance steadily continues. We saw higher year-over-year advertising spending across all media platforms, with TV attracting ahead of Q3 2019 levels, while a rebound in radio and out-of-home remained modest, given only a partial reopening of the economy. Total advertising increased 19%, reflecting stronger year-over-year conventional and specialty TV performance from the timelier start to the new fall TV programming season this year, more live sporting events compared to 2020, and incremental revenue generated from the federal election.
As a result of the higher year-over-year advertising and a 12% increase in subscriber revenue reflecting a growing digital contribution, total media revenue was up 14.5%, which drove a 20.8% higher EBITDA in the quarter. However, EBITDA is expected to be significantly impacted in Q4 despite the expectation for continued healthy revenue growth due to an acceleration in programming costs and broadcast rights, reflecting the return to a regular sports schedule this year and a higher volume of original TV productions compared to 2020, when cancellations and delays had a favorable impact on our operating costs last year. Slide 10 summarizes the main components of adjusted EPS for Q3, which was CAD 0.82 per share, up 3.8% compared to last year. Higher EBITDA was the key driver, contributing CAD 0.08 per share of earnings growth this quarter.
This was partially offset by an increased depreciation and amortization expense, driven by the growth in our capital assets and the accelerated depreciation of 4G network elements as we transition to 5G, and a higher year-over-year equity loss pickup from MLSE. Q3 is typically a seasonally low quarter for MLSE. However, last year, they benefited from the resumption of major league sports following the suspension of play at the start of COVID. Let's turn to slide 11 on free cash flow. Consistent with our expectations and plan for the year, we generated CAD 571 million of free cash flow in Q3, down CAD 463 million from 2020. Although EBITDA effectively returned to pre-COVID levels this quarter, contributing favorably to free cash flow, this is more than offset by the planned year-over-year step-up in capital spending, as I previously referenced.
This quarter's results also reflect higher cash taxes due to the return to a normal installment payment schedule this year and higher taxable income, as well as a decrease in working capital from the growth in accounts receivable and timing of supplier payments. BCE's liquidity position remains very strong, with CAD 6.1 billion of available cash at the end of September. This excludes the final 80% payment of approximately CAD 1.65 billion for 3.5 GHz wireless spectrum acquired at the recently concluded auction, which has been pushed into Q4.
Our balance sheet is well structured, with an average term to maturity of just over 13 years on our outstanding MTNs, historically low after-tax cost of public debt of approximately 2.8%, and a net debt leverage ratio that is the lowest among Canadian direct peers at approximately 2.9 times adjusted EBITDA. We expect this to increase closer to 3.1 times EBITDA pro forma the final spectrum payment. To wrap up on slide 12, with three-quarters of strong consolidated growth already reported, we are on track to deliver on the financial guidance targets provided in February, even with certain COVID impacts expected to persist in Q4. As we begin to look out to 2022, BCE's cash flow remains strong and reliable, with growth opportunities ahead from continued COVID recovery, our accelerated fiber network investment, 5G, and digital media advertising.
On that, I'll turn the call back over to Thane and the operator to begin the Q&A portion of the call.
Great. Thanks, Glen. Before we start the Q&A period, I'd like to ask you to limit yourselves to one question and a brief follow-up so we can get to everybody in the queue. If we have some additional time, we can circle back afterwards. Thank you for that. With that mode, we're ready to take our first question.
Thank you. We will now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question and you are using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before making your selection.
If you have a question, please press star one on your device's keypad. You may cancel your question at any time by pressing star two. Please press star one at this time if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while participants register for questions. We thank you for your patience. Our first question is from Jeff Fan from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Great numbers. Mirko, I wanna ask about the MEC and business initiatives that you highlighted. Were there any revenue contributions coming from these yet in the quarter? If not, can you talk a little bit about the timing and perhaps the nature of the revenue streams? Like, how are they structured with these partners? The related question is, with these initiatives, what's helping you to get these initiatives in place? I'm just wondering, is it the network? Is it the hyperscaler relationships, or is it the B2B relationships that you have? Can you just talk a little bit about that? Thanks.
Thanks, Jeff. Thanks for the question. On the enterprise side, in particular, like what we're doing, our approach is obviously managing the puts and takes of COVID in the near term as we continue to drive forward with our kinda customary business, for lack of a better word. At the same time, as you know, 'cause I've been talking about it for the last few quarters, I'm really focused on making sure this organization puts in place the building blocks for industry leadership as, you know, the new wave of revenues come our way. That's, you know, IoT scaling, that's 5G, converged 5G and fiber, and that's, you know, multi-access edge compute revenues, and then moving up kind of, getting revenue further up the stack beyond mere connectivity.
That, that's what we're trying to do, putting in place those building blocks. I think the reason we're seeing a lot of early success in terms of securing deals or partnerships is really because of the asset mix we have. We have kind of a expanding fiber footprint. We have a leading 5G network. We have the, you know, the largest presence in terms of kinda multi-access edge centers that we can deploy with hyperscaler partners. We have the most fiberized cell sites, and we have distribution leadership in the enterprise space. Kinda we're an attractive partner either for the hyperscalers or for applications developers. You're seeing that manifest itself in terms of some of these announcements. Now you asked about, you know, the contribution from these partnerships. They're just beginning, right? It's early days.
What we're doing here again is putting in place the building blocks, creating customer awareness, driving attention to what we can offer in this space. The revenues will come. Then there's also the IoT segment, like with the more traditional IoT segment, and, you know, you saw our 73% growth in that, Jeff. That business is growing. You know, it's a pretty sizable business now, and it continues to grow. That's gonna, I'm sure the team will continue to scale that. I hope that helps to answer your question.
I guess just to clarify, the 5% service revenue growth that you're getting in wireless today, I mean, that's really coming from the consumer business, the existing business, the high-value segment that you talked about.
Yeah.
Nothing from this segment yet.
That's right. It's not just the consumer, r ight? It's also the more traditional mobile phone commercial-
Got it.
Enterprise segment as well as consumer, yes.
Okay. Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Our following question is from Vince Valentini from TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks very much, and good set of results as well. Mirko, I'm hoping you can unpack the wireless market for me because I'm a bit confused. Quebecor reported this morning, and they said they took 37% share of the gross adds in Quebec this quarter. We've seen Shaw report, which seems to suggest Shaw Mobile still adding a healthy amount of customers in Western Canada. Of course, we saw 175,000 postpaid adds by Rogers a couple weeks ago. Your results were very strong as well. Where is all the strength coming from? Are you gaining share or doing very well in sort of some other pockets of the country other than the West and Quebec?
If there's any color you can provide on that or just more overall color on how the market is so strong for everybody, it would be much appreciated.
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, the market has kind of, there's been pent-up demand essentially. I'd say, Vince, that and we're all benefiting from it, a little bit of the rising tide lifts all boats kind of approach to this. In our case, I'm quite pleased with our performance in pretty much every geography, Vince. You know, I'm focused particularly on what we're doing. I think our results are a function of the strategy that we put in place and our strong execution against that strategy. Again, I mean, repeating myself, but obviously quality smartphone loadings and in our case, particularly significant growth on the Bell brand. We've managed data overage really well.
Like, I really continue to be very pleased with the team's performance on managing the data overage decline. You know, prepaid is starting to come back. I mean, there's a little bit of frothiness there because, you know, there's some competitive activity in the flanker segment, which had an impact on prepaid, but we nevertheless did quite well. You know, stores coming back helped in terms of capturing that pent-up demand. As I said in my opening remarks, we're so much better at digital direct sales than we were a year ago. Finally, like, churn is helping those numbers. Our customer experience improvements are manifesting themselves in that record low churn, and that's obviously helping our underlying results.
Okay. Thanks for that. Just a follow-up which also relates to wireless market conditions going forward. Do you have any update on how long it's gonna be before we get any sort of final rules and rates surrounding the CRTC's MVNO regime?
I don't have a good guess on that, Vince.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our following question is from Jérôme Dubreuil from Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks for taking my question. Good morning, everyone. You made a comment on media EBITDA in the fourth quarter possibly being significantly impacted. Now you've commented on that previously, but now you might seem to put a bit more emphasis on this, so I'm wondering if you can please quantify this.
Well, good morning, and certainly, I'm not gonna be able to provide the Q4 outlook details, but let me just explain and unpack what I said. Generally, year-over-year in our media business, the sports schedules and the TV programming schedules line up such that you don't have a large differential in the recognition of your programming costs. Well, obviously, with the pandemic, we had a material shift in programming, cancellation of programming and live sports that was delayed in their start. The recognition of the broadcast revenues moved into Q3 for the sports. What we're having happen here is that when we look at this year or, excuse me, I said Q3, Q4.
When we look at this year, what's going to happen is that we are going to have a much higher recognition of the COGS related to the broadcast revenue recognition. You know, last year, we didn't have that COGS recognition, so it propped up the earnings. This year there's going to be a headwind on that. It's really nothing more than timing, and it's nothing to do with trends. There's nothing to be alarmed by it. It's just the year-over-year differential on the recognition of the COGS.
I think that's helpful. Maybe a follow-up. You were confident earlier in the year regarding possible pension contribution pauses, probably next year. Given the increased interest rates, do you still have this view?
Yeah, a great question. All of our major defined benefit plans are in great shape and are in a solvency surplus position. Matter of fact, our largest DB plan is at 109% funded position at the end of Q3. I would say we've gained more and more confidence on contribution holidays, and now we're at a point that contribution holidays are imminent. It's no longer an if, it's just a when. I'll provide more insight on that in February as I see where year-end rates end on December 31. Contribution holidays are imminent and could start as early as 2022.
Thank you.
You're welcome. Thanks for the question.
Thank you. Our following question is from Simon Flannery from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to touch on the broadband business if I could. Another strong quarter, and it was really nice to see the broadband momentum, given what we saw in the U.S. with some of the cable companies reporting adds down 50% year-over-year. Perhaps you could just give us a little bit of color, you know, how you see the momentum on broadband, what's driving that? It'd be really great if you could give us more color on, you know, the fiber opportunity given, you know, usually first pass penetration is gonna kick in, at a low level but ramp over time. Presumably, you've got a bit of a tailwind from that. Any color around sustainability would be great. Thank you.
Well, thanks for the question. I look to start with the point that our fiber strategy is working. You know, we're on track on the capital acceleration program, which a lot of which, as you know, is going into fiber. There's basically that's to kinda convey that there still is runway here. We've done a tremendous job over the last few years, in particular the last two, three years to ramp up our fiber coverage across our footprint. There's still a ways to go. I view that only as an optimistic scenario, 'cause the more fiber we lay, the more you know, penetration we will deliver.
You know, some of our cable competitors were about 50% fiber overlap, and we're doing extremely well. We got 50% more to go, so we'll continue to do very well for quite a while. Really, the underlying trend is there's a customer shift to quality. That's the bottom line. It's not like a one-time COVID impact. If you need connectivity in your home, you need connectivity in your home. You're not gonna disconnect once COVID subsides. It's the shift to quality. In terms of you know, kind of financial performance that comes with it, we all know, like, you know, we've got 10 years of experience now with fiber. Churn is significantly lower where we have fiber. Lifetime value can be up to upwards of 50% better.
Our ARPU growth is strong where we have fiber. You mentioned the penetration growth and then on the cost side, the annual support and service costs are materially lower where we have fiber. I think there's the momentum ought to continue both on the subscriber loadings and on the financial performance associated with that asset.
Great. Just one follow-up. To what extent are the gross adds on broadband coming when people move, or is this happening while you know without a move?
Well, I think, you know, our results, particularly on the financial side, reflect a pretty healthy balance between volume, tier mix, and price. I don't know if that directly answers your question, but I think basically what we're doing is we're getting, you know, a nice balance between new-to-Bell customer additions and existing Bell customers migrating from legacy technology to new technology and customers migrating up to higher speeds.
Great. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Following question is from Tim Casey from BMO. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Mirko, two from me. One, you talked about BYOD being a bigger mix. Is that something that you're stimulating from your call centers and your promotional activity? Or is that, you know, driven by the market in terms of supply chain issues? Or do you think that is driven by a change in customer preferences away from subsidized devices? Second question, just to follow up on an earlier one related to the timing on clarity with respect to MVNO rates and whatnot. Could you, I realize you don't have a timetable, but could you tell us how that dynamic evolves?
Is it like are there negotiations going on, or is it just kind of a black box within the regulator, and they let you know at some point down the road? Any color you could provide there would be helpful. Thank you.
Well, on the second one first, Tim. Good morning. On the second question first, I mean, the model is designed to encourage negotiations first, and in the absence of successful negotiations, then that it moves over to the regulator. It isn't, you know, doesn't kind of first sit with the regulator in that black box, as you said. I'm gonna leave it at that. On the first question, in terms of the BYOD volumes, I think it's a mix of all the factors that you actually laid out, so you laid that out quite nicely. I think, you know, the supply chain issues are definitely a part of the growing mix of bring-your-own-device customers, Tim.
On the other hand, what we're seeing with the, you know, this phenomenon right now is you're starting to actually see the structural benefits of installment plans as our first cohort of installment customers are reaching the end of their, you know, first two-year contracts. They're actually hanging on to their devices longer 'cause they paid for them. Combine that with, you know, kind of the supply chain issues. They're also motivated to hang on to their devices longer. As Glen mentioned in his opening remarks, I mean, that's good for the economics of our business and the overall lifetime value. What's particularly interesting here or a particular benefit here is they're not churning away. That's due to the vast improvements we've made in our customer experience.
You know, financially speaking, right now, kind of that structural shift certainly has been a benefit.
Thank you.
Thank you. Following question is from Drew McReynolds from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning. Following up on, I guess Tim's question, but broadening it out, Mirko, to wireless EBITDA margins just in general. You know, it looks as if there should be certainly some expansion looking forward. There's obviously operating leverage due to roaming coming back. It seems like equipment margins and the EIP impact has been positive. Then, you know, we're seeing lower churn. You've got digital initiatives and BYOD. I'd love your thoughts. Obviously not looking for specific guidance going forward, but just kind of the structural tailwinds here for wireless margins for Bell specifically.
Good morning, Drew. It's Glen. Thank you for your question. Look, we're extremely pleased with our wireless performance and our wireless margins, and I would agree with all of your comments as we look forward that we have some great opportunity for margin expansion. We also have, you know, pressures in the business as we manage the government's desire to ensure affordable wireless pricing in this country, so we're managing that. All of that said, I think we have some healthy upside for margin management. I think this past quarter is really demonstrative of what we can do when we focus on the high-value customer and what we can do to drive, you know, 5% service revenue growth and a healthy 5.6% EBITDA by focusing on the right customer segment.
You are right that roaming has been slower to return than we would have forecasted, and we expect that, and I would even say early indicators in October tell me that recovery is starting to happen. We'll expect that to give us a little bit of a tailwind for calendar 2022. I would say yes, look, healthy margins remain in that business. We have to manage the pricing pressures and the competitive landscape, but we have all kinds of opportunity, and as you alluded to, and roaming will be the tailwind to help us with that.
So for the-
positive 2022 for sure, Drew.
Thank you, Glen. Just while you're there, congrats on the 109%, you know, solvency surplus, just for those on the line that have lived through pension questions for a decade, it's quite amazing. A follow-up, just on the internet side, again, just, you know, really stunning kind of momentum on residential internet. Wondering if you can unpack a little bit in terms of what the fixed wireless contribution is to the overall trend there. That'd be great. Thank you.
Yeah. We've had good growth on the fixed wireless, of course. You know, you'd understand why. When we come into a community that has had very poor internet service or no internet service, and we come in with quite a robust fixed wireless Bell-branded solution, you know, the uptake is strong. You know, there's been you know, the numbers that you see here are really a reflection of extremely strong growth on the fiber side, good growth on the FWA or fixed wireless side and you know, losses on the legacy copper side.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. The following question is from Aravinda Galappatthige from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and, congrats on the very consistent results. I wanted to start with internet. I know you've discussed the drivers of the 9% growth number. I wanted to sort of go back to one element there. I know that one of the items that may have helped you is sort of the somewhat tepid promotional activity through most of 2020 and perhaps even the early part of 2021. I was wondering if you can kind of give me an update as to where things stand on that front. You know, are you starting to see some of those discounting, some of that promotional activity come back? And then, a quick follow-up on the media side. You know, 22% of it being digital, definitely, encouraging.
I know that a bigger part of that is still Crave. Any kind of insight you can give us as to where Crave's profitability is at this point would be helpful as well. Thanks.
Yes. On the, Glen, why don't you take the Crave
Yeah.
Question.
I'm obviously not going to give specifics, but Crave continues to be a profitable provider, a profitable part of our media business and overall profits to BCE as a whole. Each quarter as we expand our subscriber base, that only gets better. As we mentioned, when we had a 5% subscriber base increase, we're able to move further and further to direct-to-consumer with our customer base, as Mirko mentioned earlier, growing 33%. That is a very simple delivery mechanism for us. That even provides a greater opportunity for margin improvement. Crave has been a positive contributor and for BCE for some time now, and I only see that expanding as we continue to grow the subscriber base.
Thank you, Glen. On the first question, I think you see our financial performance on the internet side, which continues to be strong, and that's strong against pretty, you know, strong showing last year. In other words, we're lapping a pretty strong Q3 2020, and we're still delivering some good growth. But I would say, Aravinda, that the promotional, you know, intensity has come back a little bit in Q3 and into Q4, especially compared to last year. We're still able to deliver the results you see despite some of that promotional intensity coming back.
Thank you.
Thank you. The following question is from Sebastiano Petti from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks for taking the question. Just following up on the BYOD and the elongated device upgrade cycle. I mean, the dynamics that we have seen in the U.S. is that this will ultimately lead to a lower switching pool over time and could therefore create challenges on the loading front. Could you perhaps update us on where you are with EIP penetration today and maybe any color around the transition to unlimited? And to that point, just following up, there remains a question in the U.S., as you shift to 5G, do consumers understand the importance or the benefits of 5G? And will that be a tailwind to not only loading but service revenue growth as you walk folks up the rate ladder?
If you could just comment on those two things, that would be great. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Look, I won't comment or give a particular disclosure on our unlimited plan, penetration or, EIP, penetration either. I would say that, you know, customers continue to move over to unlimited. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, I'm quite happy with how we're managing that whole shift. When consumers move to unlimited, like 60% are migrating up to higher rate plans, which is positive. Of course, I'm parking the overage impacts for when I say that, but then, you know, now if I reintroduce the overage impacts, as you know, we've managed that quite well to the point where it's actually no longer, you know, a headwind or a tailwind. I think we'll reach an equilibrium point pretty soon on data overage decline.
On the installment plans, I mean, as I've mentioned earlier, I think you're seeing the structural benefits with the elongated device upgrade cycle that you mentioned. I think on the 5G upgrade cycle, I do believe it will come. I mean, we're seeing scaling of 5G subscribership right now, and it's continuing with, you know, double the data usage on 5G compared to 4G, so that trend continues. 5G customers continue to spend more than 4G customers, so that trend is continuing as well. I mean, we'll see.
I mean, there may be some, you know, headwinds as we go through this, and they may be the ones that you identify, but on the other hand, think about all the, you know, 5G, IoT, MEC revenues that we'll be able to generate because we have 5G networks, and edge centers and fiberized cell sites and low latency solutions, et cetera. Though there's a ton of opportunity on the enterprise side as well.
Great. One quick follow-up. Glen, is there any color perhaps you could give on the lower OpEx in the quarter, you know, underlying drivers of that on the wireless side?
Yeah. Well, the biggest driver on the wireless side is the fact that product sales were down so much, so we had, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, significant softness in product sales related to the supply chain issues. Obviously the associated product COGS is the main driver of that.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our following question is from Batya Levi from UBS. Please go ahead.
Great. Thank you. Can you talk a little bit about the trends you're seeing in the enterprise segment, aside from the impact of non-recurring COVID-related sales, but what you see in terms of maybe any change in demand for type of services in the funnels and the pricing environment? Just a quick follow-up on fixed wireless. Can you share any maybe speed performance metrics and usage that you see from subscribers? Thank you.
On the second one, you'll have to follow up with Thane to the extent that there's information there that we can provide. On the first one, look, I think we're seeing some IT spending coming back. There's modest growth that's encouraging in the cloud computing space. We are seeing some growth in business service solutions. Some of that spending is coming back, again, an encouraging trend. The service revenue performance has essentially been quite consistent with previous quarters. There's not much more to add than what I've said in the past. You actually, in your question, asked me not to kind of really, you know, park the kind of COVID-related bump in spending last year.
I would just basically answer to say it's more or less what we've seen the last two or three quarters, and with some delays in spending in some categories and some spending coming back, particularly in some of the business service solution.
Anything in the pricing environment you could call out?
No. I mean, it, you know, the enterprise space continues to be pretty competitive, and it all depends on which category of service you're talking about.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. We have no further questions registered at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting back over to Mr. Fotopoulos.
Thank you, Maude. Thanks again to everybody for your participation on the call this morning. As usual, I'll be available for follow-ups and clarifications throughout the day. Have a good rest of the day, everybody. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.