All participants, please stand by. Your conference is now ready to begin. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BCE Q2 2022 Results Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Thane Fotopoulos. Please go ahead, Mr. Fotopoulos.
Thank you, Paul, and good morning everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. As usual, I'm here with Mirko Bibic, BCE's President and CEO, and our CFO, Glen LeBlanc. You can find all our Q2 disclosure documents on the investor relations page of the bce.ca website, which we posted earlier this morning. However, before we begin, I wanna draw your attention to our safe harbor statement on slide two of the presentation, reminding you that today's 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 our assumptions and risks. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mirko.
Thank you, Thane, and good morning, everyone. The Bell team continues to deliver for all the stakeholders we serve. We remain focused on our strategic plan. It's working. Q2 marked another quarter of consistent operational execution with a disciplined focus on balancing market share growth and financial performance. Our approach drove consolidated service revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth of 3.8% and 4.6% respectively. These strong results are underpinned by our extensive and unprecedented network investments that are building unmatched broadband fiber and 5G infrastructure in Canada, and frankly, if not the world. By the end of this year, we'll have invested more than CAD 14 billion since 2020, the highest ever over a three-year period by Canadian Telecom. This includes planned CapEx for 2022 of approximately CAD 5 billion, which also represents peak spending by Canadian Telco in one single year.
These massive investments have focused primarily on our FTTH and 5G wireless networks, our ongoing expansion into rural and remote communities, and considerable spending on capacity and on resiliency. With approximately 900,000 more new FTTP connections deployed this year, 80% of our midterm broadband internet build-out plan, comprising 10 million residential and business locations, will be completed, and 5G LTE network service will be available to more than 80% of Canadians. Recent events have illustrated the vital importance of communications networks and the role they play as an integral part in the lives of all Canadians. They have also illustrated the relevance of our corporate purpose, which, as you know, is to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world.
It's this purpose that guides us in how we design and how we build our networks to keep our customers at the forefront of all that we do. I want to take a couple of moments now to make one thing especially clear. Bell's wireless and wireline networks use different network infrastructures, and they are configured such that a major disruption on the wireline network does not take down the national wireless network, excuse me. Since 2013, we have protected our cores from the Internet through the use, among other things, of multiple geographic zones to route traffic. Moreover, in the event of a localized outage, we have built an automated customer notification system starting first in Quebec and in Ontario. Now, it's clear that no network is perfect and no network is immune to outages, but network architecture clearly does make a difference.
Since the start of the pandemic and including planned spending for 2022, we will have invested, on average, close to CAD 800 per retail subscriber, which is more than any other Canadian operator. This unmatched spending has not been limited to access, in other words, to coverage. Over 60% of total core network investment in our three-year period since COVID has been directed towards capacity, modernization, robustness, and outage detection. Since COVID, that we've actually invested approximately CAD 1 billion in our wireless and our wireline cores to increase capacity, harden security, improve resiliency and redundancy, and build automatic outage notification. We're not standing still. As you've seen from recent announcements, including in this morning's press release, we're continuing to launch new products and services.
Last week, we inaugurated the next evolution of 5G in Canada with the launch of our mobile 5G+ network that will offer peak data download speeds of 3 Gbps . 5G+ will be deployed across the country and is the result of our investment in mid-band 3.5 GHz spectrum. Currently available in Toronto and surrounding areas, Bell's 5G+ network is expected to cover approximately 60% of the addressable population by year-end, and this will include areas like the GTA, Halifax, St. John's, and Sherbrooke. We also continue to raise the bar on delivering the most advanced internet and Wi-Fi services to Canadians.
In September, we're launching an 8 Gb symmetrical internet service, so that's symmetrical upload and download, in select areas of Toronto that will offer data download speeds 5 times faster than cable and data upload speeds at least 250 times faster than cable. We're introducing Wi-Fi 6E technology, which enables better in-home coverage and speeds to connected devices that are 2 times faster than previously. 8 Gb upload and download symmetrical on Wi-Fi 6E really are game changers. More concrete examples of our plan. Our plan is really coming together as you can see from these concrete examples, and basically better wireless speeds, unmatched internet upload and download with best in-home Wi-Fi, and network architecture that offers the best resiliency in the industry.
On the TV front, we're making the IPTV experience even better by bringing together live and on-demand streaming content and thousands of apps all in one place. Our new Fibe TV service, powered by Android TV technology, features access to Google Play Store, universal search, as well as voice remote and cloud PVR capabilities. In wireless, our focus on high-value mobile phone loadings and customer base management continue to pay off with another set of excellent operating results this past quarter, highlighted by more than two-fold increase in total mobile phone net adds to approximately 111,000, record postpaid churn, and continued strong service revenue, ARPU and EBITDA growth. We achieve these results against the backdrop of relatively stable year-over-year wireless prices despite surging inflation across the Canadian economy.
According to the most recent StatsCan data, the price of all goods and services in aggregate across the Canadian economy has increased 8.1% over the past year compared to another decline for cellular services. In fact, to compare ARPUs today to back in 2019, we're not back to 2019 levels. Basically, we're delivering far more value today at declining prices. In residential wireline, we added 36,473 new net retail fiber customers this quarter, an increase of 19.5% versus last year, which contributed to strong residential internet revenue growth of 8%. Turning to media now and our digital-first strategy. We continued our strong momentum across our streaming and digital platforms, as evidenced by outstanding 55% growth in total digital revenues.
Digital now represents 27% of total Bell Media revenue, up from 19% last year. Underpinning the very strong performance was Crave, which grew direct streaming subs by 8%, while total subs were up 2% compared to last year when we experienced strong demand due to COVID. A good result considering tougher year-over-year comparables. In revenue from SAM TV, our advertising sales tool platform was up more than four-fold versus last year, generating approximately 60% of total digital advertising revenue in the quarter. On the customer experience front, we continue our momentum. With more than 85% of customers now mainly interacting with Bell online, our digital strategy is basically playing a significant role in our imperative to champion customer experience.
Our ongoing investments in digital functionality, as well as the quality and reliability of our networks, are driving better customer satisfaction and retention results, as reflected in a third consecutive quarter of improved wireless, residential Internet, and Fibe TV churn. We also continue to enhance apps and online support tools with features like virtual repair, enhanced self-install, automatic top-up enrollment, and personalized templates that improve the clarity of communications with our valuable customers. These initiatives are a big reason why Bell customer satisfaction scores continue to improve and why our suite of apps continue to be the highest-graded telecom apps in the country. In terms of recent notable ESG developments, Bell was named the top telecom company in the world and the fourth overall in Canada for 2022 on the Best Fifty Corporate Citizens list compiled by Corporate Knights.
Bell is also the first communications company in North America to receive ISO 50001 certification for energy management, which has been renewed for a third consecutive year. We were recognized as one of Canada's greenest employers for a sixth straight year with our ambitious commitments to reduce GHG emissions and to recover and recycle mobile devices through the Bell Blue Box program. I'll now turn to slide six for a synopsis of some of our key operating metrics in Q2. Let's start with wireless. As you can see, we added 83,197 new net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, up a very, very strong 87% compared to last year.
This was driven by a number of factors, so greater retail store traffic, 5G momentum, improved business customer demand, immigration growth, more focus on bundling wireless with residential Internet, and outstanding customer base management, as you can see by our best-ever quarterly churn rate of 0.75% in the quarter. Similarly, for prepaid, net adds were up meaningfully year-over-year, growing to 27,564 as market activity picked up significantly with increased immigration and travel to Canada. This represents our best quarterly prepaid result in almost two years. ARPU was up 3.8%, our fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. This was driven by a sharp increase in roaming revenue, as Glen will detail when he speaks, and more customers on premium rate plans.
This reflects our laser focus on higher value subscriber loadings across all our mobile brands. Consistently, quarter after quarter, a majority of our new postpaid customers are subscribing to unlimited plans. And of these, 87% are on monthly data plans greater than 10 GB. There's more upside, given that we're still in the early stages of the consumer upgrade cycle to 5G, with only 27% of postpaid subscribers now on a 5G-enabled device. As 5G momentum keeps building, subscribers will migrate up the rate plan curve, and that'll serve as a catalyst, we think, for continued strong ARPU and service revenue growth. Now turning to Bell Wireline. We added 22,620 total new net retail internet customers, up 28% versus last year. That includes the competitive losses of legacy DSL subscribers where we do not have fiber.
If we look at our performance just within our fiber footprint, it paints an even stronger picture where we added over 36,000 new subscribers, and this, importantly, was achieved with a fiber cable overlap of only 56%. It's demonstrating in a very clear way the market share gains we're making where we have fiber. We still have another 44% of our wireline footprint to go with cable overlap, so a lot of runway left. We also added around 4,000 net new IPTV subscribers, which is essentially stable versus last year, despite the level of promotional offer intensity returning closer to pre-pandemic levels, while satellite TV and home phone net customer losses both increased compared to Q2 of last year, when we experienced fewer customer deactivations due, of course, to COVID.
At Bell Media, total advertising revenue was up 5% over last year. This was supported by continued strong digital growth, improved radio and out-of-home performance, and increases across our specialty TV sports and news channels. TSN and RDS again maintained their number one rankings for the current broadcast year to date, and we benefited largely from the return of the F1 Canadian Grand Prix, which was the most-watched Formula One race on record across all Bell Media properties. Notably, we also concluded negotiations with the NFL for a multiyear expansion of our media rights agreement, and this now includes live coverage of all NFL International series games. The new agreement ensures that Bell Media will continue to be the exclusive television broadcast partner of the NFL in Canada for a number of years. As for our Quebec media strategy, it really continues to hunt.
Noovo has outpaced all other French language conventional TV competitors in viewership growth with year-to-date primetime audiences that are up a leading 5%. Despite this relatively strong overall performance, TV advertising demand in Q2 softened a bit given the current macro environment of surging inflation, a potential recession, and supply chain issues in certain key consumer good verticals. We did, however, see the return of some advertising dollars back into radio and out-of-home that had moved to TV during the height of the pandemic. Notwithstanding the broader economic backdrop, we did have one of our most successful upfront sales seasons ever, shattering the record for first-day bookings with a content funnel that includes 100 original TV productions planned for the upcoming broadcast year, a 75% increase compared to 2021.
In summary, consistently strong execution by the Bell team within our well-defined strategy allowed us to deliver excellent overall operating results in Q2, supporting sustainable value creation for all the stakeholders we serve. Glen, I'll turn it over to you in just a second, but before I do, I sadly want to acknowledge the recent passing of visionary leader and former Bell Canada President and CEO, Jean de Grandpré. Under his management in the 1970s and early '80s, Bell built its telecommunications leadership position with positive growth across our many business segments. Monsieur de Grandpré led the formation of BCE in 1983, and we're now a CAD 23 billion company delivering industry-leading employee infrastructure, R&D, and community investment.
On behalf of all members of the Bell team, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the de Grandpré family and my sincere thanks for his exceptional contributions to BCE, to Québec, and to Canada. Over to you, Glen.
Thank you, Mirko, and good morning, everyone. Our financial performance continues to demonstrate the Bell team's consistent execution and disciplined focus on profitable customer growth, as evidenced by another quarter of strong consolidated revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth, which remain in line with the 2022 guidance targets we announced last February. Service revenue was up a very solid 3.8%, which drove 4.6% higher adjusted EBITDA, delivering a 0.7-point margin increase to 44.2%. As a result of the strong EBITDA contribution from operations and the lower year-over-year pension financing costs due to the high net asset surplus position of our DB pension plans, adjusted EPS was up 4.8% to CAD 0.87 per share.
However, net earnings and statutory EPS were down compared to last year, directly as a result of a non-cash mark-to-market equity derivative losses from a decrease in BCE's share price during the quarter. Notably, our net earnings results this quarter also included an asset impairment charge related to the consolidation of real estate space post-COVID, as we shift increasingly to a hybrid work model. We aggressively execute on a multiyear plan to reduce real estate costs. We anticipate taking further non-cash impairment charges as we vacate other leased properties. We are confident that over the next 5-7 years, we can rationalize our physical footprint by up to 3 million sq ft, which will generate cumulative cash savings in the range of CAD 250 million-CAD 300 million.
As for CapEx spending in the quarter, it was up year-over-year with a total investment of more than CAD 1.2 billion as we continue to expand our network leadership with advanced spending on the rollout of the fiber and 5G consistent with our two-year capital acceleration program. Free cash flow is notably strong, increasing 7.1% over last year to CAD 1.33 billion on the back of higher EBITDA, lower severance costs, reduced pension cash funding due to the contribution holiday that started this quarter. Let's turn to the detailed financial results of our three operating segments and start with wireless on slide nine. Just another great quarter.
It was led by excellent service revenue growth of 7.8%, which excludes low margin equipment revenue that declined 0.9% year-over-year, reflecting consumers' behavior towards longer upgrade cycles and pre-owned device activations. This standout performance was the result of our clear and consistent focus on higher value subscriber growth, particularly on the Bell brand. Also, effective customer base management and a very pronounced roaming recovery in the quarter as consumer travel accelerated with revenue rebounding to 98% of pre-pandemic levels. Due to the flow-through of the high margin service revenues together with promotional offer discipline, wireless EBITDA grew a very strong 8.3%, yielding a 1.2 percentage point increase in margin to 46.7%. Let's move over to slide 10 on wireline.
An improved top-line performance trajectory this quarter with total revenue down 0.3% compared to a decline of 2.2% in the previous quarter. Underlying this sequential improvement was continued strong residential internet revenue growth, which grew 8% year-over-year as we continue to drive further market share gains and higher ARPU from customers who are moving to higher speed tiers and recognizing the value and dependability of Bell's superior pure fiber-based services compared to cable. On the B2B front, although near-term revenue headwinds continued this quarter from the sale of Createch in March and ongoing global data equipment shortages that drove a 23.2% decline in total wireline product sales, as well as related delays in spending on service solutions by large enterprise customers, we saw some moderation in the rate of year-over-year revenue declines.
This can be attributed to improved performance, particularly in the small and medium business space, as customers resume more normal operations post-COVID. Definitely some encouraging signs as we enter the second half of the year, but pressures are expected to persist given the current macroeconomic backdrop. Notwithstanding lower year-over-year revenue, wireline EBITDA was up 1.7% on the back of 1.8% reduction in operating costs. This was achieved despite unusually high storm-related costs and inflationary impacts on fuel and labor that we absorbed this quarter, which we estimate totaled in excess of CAD 20 million. We expect these inflationary pressures to persist for the remainder of the year. Let's move over to slide 11 on Bell Media.
Another good quarter with total revenue up 8.7% year-over-year, which as Mirko said, benefited from the return of the F1 Canadian Grand Prix in June. Advertising growth, including a strong contribution from digital, as well as a 3.5% increase in subscriber revenue reflecting ongoing Crave streaming growth. Advertising revenue grew 4.7%, reflecting year-over-year increases across our specialty TV sports and news services, as well as strong radio and out-of-home advertising demand as COVID recovery continues. Consistent with the increase in total revenue, media EBITDA was up 5.6% year-over-year. This was achieved even with a 10% step up in operating costs reflecting the return of the F1 Canadian Grand Prix and an increase in overall marketing and sales activity back to more normal levels.
Lastly, on slide 12, we have the financial strength and flexibility to execute on our business plan and our capital market priorities for 2022. Our balance sheet remains healthy with approximately CAD 3.1 billion in available liquidity at the end of Q2 that is supported by substantial recurring free cash flow generation and a relatively stable and manageable net debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.1. Excluding the impact of the 3.5 GHz spectrum licenses we acquired last summer, our leverage ratio would be 2.9 times. With 85% of fixed rate debt currently a favorable long-term debt maturity schedule that has an average term of approximately 14 years, no near-term debt refinancing requirements, and an interest coverage ratio that is well above our target policy of 9 times adjusted EBITDA.
We have good predictability over our debt service costs as well as a high degree of protection from interest rate volatility. On top of all of this, our defined benefit pension plans are stronger than ever, with an average solvency position of 115%, which has enabled us to begin taking the contribution holidays on current service cost payments that I've been talking about previous quarters. On that, I'll turn the call back over to you, Thane, and an operator to begin Q&A.
Great. Thank you, Glen. We are prepared and ready to take our first question. Paul, can you please explain to the participants how to queue up?
Thank you. We will now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question and you are using a speakerphone, please mute your handset before making your selection. If you have a question, please press star one on the 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 the participants register. We thank you for your patience. The first question is from Maher Yaghi from Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you guys for taking my questions, and very nice quarter in wireless. I just wanted to first maybe start on the wireline side. Continued very strong cost containment, beyond the equipment impact on profitability because of the year-on-year decline in equipment sales. Where do you expect these cost savings to continue to carry your growth in wireline over the next couple of quarters, Glen? On wireless, I wanted to ask you if you have seen any impact on customer loading since the network issues that Rogers had witnessed, and if these impacts have continued up to now, or were they mostly in the early days only?
Just on the churn, can you maybe unpack the improvement in churn, you know, as very, very low churn here. How much of it is due to bundling and/or other reasons? If you can name them, please. Thank you.
Good morning, Maher. Glen. I'll start with the first part of the question here. Look, I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that we continue to show exceptional cost discipline and cost control. That has been something that I think has been ongoing with us and this management team for many, many years. Now, of course, we were able to achieve, as I said in my opening remarks, a 0.7% margin expansion despite absorbing what turned out to be about CAD 7 million in fuel cost pressures. I expect that to be probably more like CAD 20 million on a full year basis. Labor pressures, you know, as we compete for the hot skills resulted in approximately CAD 5 million of wage pressure in the quarter. I don't see that going anywhere anytime soon. We, you know, certainly are feeling inflationary pressures.
I mentioned in my opening remarks, we had higher than normal storm costs. That was approximately CAD 10 million. All together, we were able to to improve margins by 0.7% while absorbing that due to just general cost discipline. I can assure you that we will if things change with inflation, we start to see, you know, additional inflationary pressures beyond what we've felt so far, then we'll be more aggressive in doing what we need to do to protect margins into the future. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone, Maher, that we will take the necessary steps to manage our costs in our wireline business and for that matter, in our entire business.
Good morning, Maher. I'll take the next two, which kind of I'll pull together really kind of the loadings that you're expecting us to see in Q3, kind of my interpretation of your question, of course, the associated churn. I kind of take your question in a more general way. Obviously, we're pleased with our results across the board, and we're continuing the momentum we've shown the last, you know, 5, 6, 7 Quarters based on executing against our pretty clear strategy. Really kind of all anchored off of a best networks customer value proposition, which is really resonating. That's kind of a very general answer to your question. More specifically, I think the market dynamics that supported our performance in Q2, we see continuing in Q3.
Things like retail store traffic coming back, our continued scaling of our digital and direct sales, which we got a lot better at during COVID, 5G growth, immigration, travel, those elements. Of course, on the financial side, there's the roaming tailwinds. Last but certainly not least, network superiority. You know, that best networks value proposition is certainly standing out in Q3, and that's speeds, of course. Everybody talks about speeds, both on the wireless and wireline side. On the wireline side, veering away from your, you know, wireless-focused question, but on the wireline side, upload speeds are really starting to become a key competitive differentiator. Just in a kind of an interesting fact for all of you on the call.
You know, we're seeing on the wireline side kind of, you know, meaningful material loadings on the higher speed plans. We're finding that customers who are on the higher speed plans have 20%-30% more connected devices in their homes, and their upload consumption is three times higher. Upload is gonna continue to be a big deal for customers, and we're unbeatable in that regard. Of course, reliability and resiliency is now at the forefront of customers' purchasing decisions. Again, that's why I spent quite a bit of time in my opening remarks on how we've architected our network. Really back to your question, market dynamics in addition to our network superiority is going to continue to give us momentum Q3. On churn, number of factors.
You know, of course, customer experience improvements have a big impact. Back to the best networks, that's having a big impact, and that, you know, obviously related to customer experience. We're also benefiting from devices lasting longer. So you know, when customers aren't switching both, you know, and we're not having to provide new handsets. They're just I guess what I'm trying to say, even though devices are lasting longer, we're managing to keep customers on our network with the customer experience improvements and network superiority. Yes, the combining of offers that include residential internet and wireless are improving churn as well. We're seeing better churn for customers who have more than one product with us.
Thank you, Mirko. Just on, have you seen any initial bump up in loading due to the Rogers network issues?
Yeah. Customers are choosing Bell. Yes.
Great. Thank you. Next question, please.
Thank you. The next question is from Drew McReynolds from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning. Maybe for you, Glen, probably just on the macro side, not just people looking at telecom, but just looking more broadly, you know, everyone's wondering what we're in for as we move forward here, and BCE certainly has a, you know, wide variety of touch points here with the economy. Are you seeing either any incremental inflation, and from a macro standpoint, any problems with receivables? You made some commentary on the ad market being a little soft. Just as we get here a little bit deeper into the summer, anything post-quarter that you would flag? Then secondly, you know, maybe back to you, Mirko, you know, thanks for some of the data points on the fiber to the home market share.
Just curious, you know, how fiber performs versus DOCSIS, but then versus other fiber competitors, 'cause presumably those fiber footprints of competitors will grow over time as we've seen globally and may see increasingly more here in Canada. Just wondering what your experience would be there. Thank you.
Good morning, Drew. Yeah, your question on what we're seeing in the macroeconomic outlook. Look, to be very honest, I unpacked what we're seeing in inflation quite specifically in the past quarter. Other than that, we're not really seeing material issues. While the economic growth is slowing, it remains relatively strong and the labor market remains robust. Specifically, you asked a question on customer payment. We have not experienced a material change in customer payment patterns. As a result, there's been no related increase in bad debts, nor are we increasing provisions at this time or having extended payment terms. You know, frankly, it's been quite manageable despite, as I said, unpacking a few inflationary pressures that are specific to our industry.
Having a large fleet like we have, obviously, the escalating fuel prices and, of course, tackling hot skills and ensuring we retain and attract the right people, some pressure there. The final comment I'll make is that you brought up, yeah, we're monitoring media closely and what impacts might be on TV advertising due to the macroeconomic pressures we are seeing globally. As I said, look, this past quarter, we're quite pleased. We had the F1 to lean on. We have World Cup of Soccer coming up, so we're excited about that. I think it's an area of the business that we tend to see macroeconomic pressures hit first, so we're monitoring that. Thanks, Drew.
Yeah. Drew, good morning. Questions on fiber. Look, we're seeing growth in all of our fiber geographies, so that's real positive. You know, that's been the case for quarter after quarter after quarter. In terms of fiber competition, like, it's kind of difficult to answer your question 'cause right now you don't really have very many areas where you have two fiber operators competing against each other in the actual the same geography. That fiber overlap is really minimal to date. And it will take. You know, across the multiple operators, whether or not they're small fiber pure play operators or the cable companies, it will literally take years and billions of CAD for them to materially overlap our fiber footprint.
Then while that's going on, and I say this from direct experience, right? Having been at Bell for our entire fiber journey, I know how long it takes and how much money it takes, and so do you. Meanwhile, while that may go on, with our competitors, we shall see. Here we are today with 3 Gbps internet speeds symmetrical right now, today, to literally millions of households across our footprint and only growing. We just announced the 8 Gb launch, starting of course, like in next month in September in the GTA, or I'm stating the obvious, the largest market, and other areas in the back half of this year in Ontario and Quebec.
In a very short period of time, I'm talking about 2- 3 years, we'll have 8 Gbps to upwards of 6 million locations passed, so in a very short period of time. I guess what I'm saying is, while others are gonna try to catch up potentially over multiple years, billions of CapEx, we're pushing forward quite aggressively. If you take a step back at how our accelerate CapEx program is all coming together, this quarter alone, 250,000 additional locations passed, a meaningful growth in locations passed in the back half of this year. Wireless 5G+ to 60% of the addressable population, increased resiliency, and a new TV product.
You can see how that accelerated, you know, CapEx program has really allowed us to take a significant lead in the collection of services that ride on our fiber networks.
Good.
Thank you. Next question, please.
Thank you. The next question is from David Barden from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning. It's Matt sitting in for Dave. Thanks for taking the question this morning. Just first on wireline and the kind of large enterprise supply chain related delay in some of the business. I mean, do you have any visibility on when those supply chain related delays will resolve? Then on the backside of it, is there capacity enough to, you know, for us to see a bump up in delivery on that kind of backlog? Or should we expect a pretty smooth, you know, return to business once the supply chain, you know, clears? Then, you know, maybe secondly, just on the kind of real estate opportunity that you highlighted. It sounded like that was mostly related to, you know, workers in their office and office space.
Just trying to relate the real estate opportunity to maybe what you can do with central offices. Do you have any kind of additional color on, you know, what that potential might be and maybe just a general timeline for when that can be over which it can be realized? Thanks.
I'll handle the back half first, Matt, and Mirko will talk about B2B supply chain. Yeah, the real estate numbers I gave you today is really focused on leased real estate space where we would have traditional office workers and naturally like most in this country or globally are moving to more of a hybrid. Central offices is a bigger question to unpack. I mean, obviously as we look to the future and copper decommissioning, we're going to see how we rationalize our central offices. For now, the numbers I quoted today are really focused on office. As we get a better understanding and are further along the copper decommissioning path, we'll be able to give better insights on what central office opportunities we'll have. With that, I'll over to Mirko.
Okay, thanks, Matt. On B2B, you know, you see the trajectory is improving sequentially. That's a positive. Like I said in Q1, and it's continuing Q2 and up to date, you know, in one month into Q3, we haven't seen cancellation of projects, which is another positive sign. Revenues obviously are delayed for the reasons that you've highlighted, which is largely supply chain. I do think that we will be poised to capitalize reasonably quickly when the supply chain stabilizes, to answer your question fairly directly. On the small and medium segment, we are gaining momentum there. We're seeing volumes come back, which is a positive, and we're seeing some revenue growth there, which is also another positive.
Then as you look into 2023 and beyond, we remain quite optimistic about 5G B2B growth coming as all the components are now being put together. That's another positive. Thanks, Matt.
Great. Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Vince Valentini from TD Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah, thanks very much. Congrats as well on a very strong quarter. The EBITDA growth in the first half of the year is 5.5%. You're still sticking with your 2%-5% guidance. It seems like there's a lot of tailwinds, and especially on the wireless side. For one, is there something specific you're seeing on, you know, competitive developments in the second half or some unforeseen costs to keep you at that guidance and not even talking about the high end of that guidance range? Or is it just conservatism?
Good morning, Vince. I think I kind of unpacked this already when I talked about, you know, higher inflation and escalating fuel costs and labor or wage pressures as we attract and retain hot skills, attracting them to our organization. I mentioned about media, and that's something we really have to monitor with TV advertising due to the macroeconomic pressure. It's no more than that. We're extremely pleased with the front end, the first six months, and the performance we've had. I remain committed to the guidance range I provided for you in February.
Specifically on as we're getting into back-to-school period, there's nothing you're seeing that's alarming you on a, let's say, a resurgence of competitive intensity. You're seeing similar trends in Q3 to the second quarter you said earlier?
Well, I'll say on wireless, yes. Seeing the same trends. Plus, you know, and back to the answer earlier around kind of the best network superiority, resiliency, redundancy, which is obviously benefiting us. On the wireline side, there's a little bit more promotional intensity, feels a little bit more like the days pre-COVID. Look, it's when I think of that question and I look at the dynamics and I observe the higher promotional intensity on the wireline side compared to wireless, I guess it doesn't surprise me. Some of our competitors are under pressure given the products we have out there in our network.
That's to be expected, and we're not gonna let up. How's that? We're not gonna let up. We have the better network, we have the better services, and we're gonna keep pushing. It's still early, right? We're only one month into Q3.
Mirko, just to confirm, you said that it's the fixed line where you may be seeing a bit of an escalation?
Yes. Fixed line. Wireless seems to be pretty stable as it has been for quite a while in terms of things like promotional intensity and handset discounting, those kind of things, Vince.
Cool. One last one quick, Glen. The 98% roaming revenue figure from pre-pandemic, can you give any color on the volume that is attached to that? Like, is it in the range of 75% of volume leading to that kind of revenue traction?
Sure, Vince. A great question. 89% is where we're at the end of June for volume recovery, 98% of revenue. Obviously, the differential is rate. We were much later introducing rate increases than some of our competitors were. It was July, I believe, before our rate increases went in, so.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you. The next question is from Stephanie Price from CIBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. The wireless and wireline bundling offerings have picked up across both in the Bell and the Virgin brand. Can you share any early learnings with bundling and if you have any longer-term targets around bundling?
Well, I think it's just a reflection of wanting to serve the household, to serve the consumer, rather than kinda pretending that, you know, there's two different customer bases, one for wireless, one for wireline. It really is the same consumer, the same household. When you go to market with that mindset, you know, it's gonna lead to combined offers. We are seeing higher lifetime value and lower churn as a result of that. You know, it's been in place in the industry for quite some time. Maybe you're seeing a little bit more activity from us as we focus a little bit more on it, but there are huge benefits for us to doing so.
As bundling capabilities become more important, how do you think about your competitive positioning in the West? Would you consider wholesale and maybe fixed wireless as an option and part of the strategy?
Look, on that, when you're thinking about potentially up to four product bundling competition or, you know, duos, trios and quads, we are in a very good competitive position compared to any others as we have owner economics in 75% of the country. That puts us in a better position than anyone else. It's difficult to compete effectively unless you have owner economics. That's really what's going to play in our favor. Unlike almost any other, we also have a vast array of content services that we can offer to our customers. You're kinda seeing it in the wireless side today, right?
Not even talking about bundling across the country, but just in wireless today on our ultimate plans where we include Crave as a competitive differentiator. Again, having owner economics on content plays to our strengths. No other provider can really meaningfully have owner economics on content within their overall bundles.
That makes sense. Just finally from me, with ISED looking for all the telcos to work together to keep emergency services working in the event of an outage, do you see any additional CapEx requirements, potentially arising from this?
Not for us. That's why I did spend, you know, quite some time this morning outlining how much we've invested over the last few years on things like that. We are well-positioned in that regard, Stephanie. You know, beyond the very specific question, we'll obviously work with all the other providers to serve Canadians and to help each other. You know, we always have. To be fair, even when we run into the occasional spot, others are quick to help us as well. That's always been the culture within the industry.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from David Joyce from Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. On the upgrade cycle, appreciate that you mentioned about the 56% fiber and cable overlap metric. I just wanted to kind of sense check how that's progressing. Was that the figure around 30% that you had mentioned in the first quarter? Just wanted to see if you could update us on how many fiber home passes you expect to be at year-end, and when you expect to be completed on that. Thanks.
For the year 2022, the entire year 2022, we still expect to be very close to 900,000 additional fiber locations passed. That'll put us at around 7.1 million total fiber locations passed. We're right on track. I did mention 250,000 locations passed in Q2, but for the entire year it'll be 900,000. On fiber cable overlap, we're at 56%. I mean, we're more today than we were last quarter, but we weren't at 30% last year. We're somewhere slightly above 50% last year. That's progressing well. 56% cable overlap, really good. Got 44% to go, so a lot of upside.
Lots of promise there.
All right. Is it still roughly at the three-year timeframe when you expect to be, you know, fully upgraded?
Yeah. We wanna be at 10 million broadband locations, you know, high-speed broadband locations passed by the end of 2024. That's been our medium-term broadband build-out plan. 1 million of those 10 million locations will be or are already done with wireless home internet. We're looking to have 9 million fiber locations passed by the end of 2025, and we'll be at 7.1 million or so by the end of this year, 7.2 million maybe. That leaves 1.8 million or 1.9 million fiber locations to go over the years 2023, 2024, 2025.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Jérôme Dubreuil from Desjardins. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah, thank you for taking my questions. Good morning, everyone. The first one is on the 8 Gbps , definitely impressive and will future-proof your network for sure. If you can share maybe what percentage of your internet customer base in your fiber footprint that are already taking your highest speed tier? I'm trying to get a sense here of the potential attractiveness of this new product in the current context.
I'm not gonna give you the exact figures, but I will tell you that, I will say that, you know, subscribers who are on 500 Mb and above is quite material, like very high. Those who are 1.5 Gb and above, quite high as well. You know, 3 Gb just launched a couple of months ago, and 8 Gb hasn't launched yet. Those numbers are smaller but interesting successes on 3 Gb to date, frankly. You know, customers, the majority of customers are not buying the lower speed plans. Like I said earlier, the upload speed is gonna be a game changer.
Wi-Fi 6E, an absolute game changer 'cause Wi-Fi 6E is gonna give you very high speed Wi-Fi throughout the house, very consistent quality of service. That's gonna be really good as well. You know, I already shared with you how those customers who buy the richer plans are using more and have more connected devices, and that's not gonna change. I mean, we've all, everyone in the industry has been in meetings over the last 10, 15 years, where you, every single time, underestimate how much bandwidth consumption there will be and how much consumers are gonna make use of higher speeds. I think that's what's gonna happen with 3 Gb and 8 Gb as well.
Great. On the NFL deal, you know, we've seen sports rights continue increasing in prices. Has there been a significant change in the cost of this contract? Also, do you fully allocate these costs to media?
Yeah, the cost, Jérôme, yes, the costs are fully allocated to media, but I'm not gonna disclose what our contract details are in the NFL contract. Suffice to say that you just unpacked it. As all sports packages and renewals are up in price, but we are comfortable with the economics of the contract or we wouldn't have signed it.
Great. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you. The next question is from Batya Levi from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Great. Thank you. A follow-up on the wireless ARPU side. Can you provide an update on what percent of your postpaid base has the unlimited premium plan, as of now? I believe that was 20% last quarter. Along with roaming rate increases you mentioned, should we expect mid-single-digit ARPU growth can continue in the second half? Just a quick question on the cost side. Wireless, you mentioned, acquisition retention is pretty steady. Any inflationary impact on the other part of cost that we should bake in for second half for wireless? Thank you.
Good morning. No, on the cost side, we're seeing stability in handset pricing. We're not seeing any supply chain issues there. Nothing to speak of specifically at this time. You asked us to unpack roaming. Look, I gave some specifics of roaming. We're at about 89% of pre-COVID volume. I do anticipate continued increases in roaming, which will support our ARPU, but not to the same extent of the rebound you saw in roaming in Q2. Yes, ARPU will be supported by continued roaming improvements into the future, but probably not to the same degree as we've enjoyed in the past few quarters. I think your first question was on-
On the unlimited premium mix of your subscriber base.
Yeah, we haven't disclosed the mix of customers who are on those specific plans. We have said that 27% of our base is on 5G-enabled devices and therefore 5G plans. We haven't broken that down further into the specifics you're requesting, and we're not gonna do that right now.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Paul, I think we've timed out, so I think we'll end the conference call on that question. Thanks again for everybody's participation on the call this morning. As usual, I will be available throughout the day for any follow-ups and clarifications. On that, have a great rest of the day.
Thank you, everyone. Have a good day.
Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.