Good day, everyone. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Quebecor Inc.'s Financial Results for the Q4 and full year 2025 conference call. I would now like to introduce Hugues Simard, Chief Financial Officer of Quebecor Inc. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this Quebecor conference call. My name is Hugues Simard. I'm the CFO, and joining me to discuss our financial and operating results for the Q4 and the full year of 2025 is Pierre-Karl Péladeau, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Anyone unable to attend the conference call will be able to access the recorded version by logging on to the webcast available on Quebecor's website until the 27th of April of this year. As usual, I also want to inform you that certain statements made on the call today may be considered forward-looking, and we would refer you to the risk factors outlined in today's press release and reports filed by the corporation with regulatory authorities. Let me now turn the floor to Pierre-Karl.
Merci, Hugues. Good morning, everyone. I guess that, you know, you will understand that we're very pleased, and I would say, and actually also very proud, to review Quebecor operational and financial performance for the Q4 and the full year of 2025. All our sectors of activity perform exceptionally well in the last quarter of the year. Our locomotive, the telecom segment, delivered what is unquestionably the strongest quarter since the acquisition of Freedom Mobile. This performance reflects the disciplined execution of our growth initiatives, rigorous cost management, and a sustained commitment to providing innovative, high performance, and reliable services at competitive prices to our customers.
In our media segment, even adjusting for a favorable retroactive royalty adjustment, we managed an impressive turnaround and return to profitability in our broadcasting operations, resetting the stage and laying a solid base to be able to keep adapting to the ever-challenging revenue environment. As we still, in all ways, believe in our unsurpassability to inform and entertain Quebecers for our unique array of information, sports, and entertainment offerings. Our financial results speak for themselves, with a free cash flow up 21.9% in Q4 and 27.3% for 2025. EBITDA, excluding the impact of stock-based compensation and a retroactive royalty agreement in media, is up 7.6% in Q4 and 4.7% for the year.
Adjusted Net Income is up 21.2% in Q4 and 17.8% for 2025, and our leverage ratio is down to 2.95 x, the lowest by far of the top four telecoms in Canada. All in all, a pretty good performance yet again. I will now review our operational results, starting with our telecom segment, where we continue to capitalize on the favorable dynamics we created with the Freedom acquisition, April 2023. Since then, our strategy has been clear and consistent: to deliver richer, higher quality services at everyday best prices. Period. Clear and simple. You know what? It works. This positioning, which is quite different from our competitors, are strengthening our competitiveness, increase our market share, and firmly establish Vidéotron as the game-changing alternative Canadian consumers have been waiting for and are now flocking to.
This positive momentum, already visible last year, continued throughout 2025. We ended the year with the industry highest loading, best service revenue growth, and top EBITDA growth of 2% for the year and 4.2% for the Q4 , our strongest quarterly Adjusted EBITDA growth since 2019. We improved total services revenue for a third consecutive quarter, our best quarterly growth of the year at 3.5%. This was driven primarily by our best mobile service revenue performance in more than five years, with a $39.9 million or 9.5% increase. These results reflect robust subscriber addition of 311,000 net new lines in 2025 and 73,900 in Q4 alone. A testament to the effectiveness of our disciplined multi-brand pricing strategy, considering the ongoing soft Canadian market growth.
Customers continue to respond positively to our value proposition, as demonstrated by sustained churn improvements, market share gains, and steady ARPU growth across all brands. Speaking of ARPU, our consolidated mobile ARPU turned positive for the first time since the Freedom acquisition, reaching CAD 35.23 in Q4, an increase of CAD 0.48 or 1.4% year-over-year, and improving sequentially for a third consecutive quarter. Our ability to mitigate the dilutive impact of our Fizz and Freedom prepaid, while delivering excellent customer experience, was key to this turnaround. Even in an increasingly competitive and sometimes unpredictable environment, we maintain pricing discipline and resisted industry-wide unsustainable promotional tactics. We remain focused on the long term, high-quality services. Operator?
Please continue.
We thought there was a bug on the telecom line. Okay, I continue. Sorry about this. Furthermore, we have yet to reach our full potential in the western provinces, where our market share is still low, but where we are actively improving and building out our network. Our track record demonstrate that disciplined growth is possible without ARPU dilution, unlike competitors relying on aggressive and confusing promotional program like EPP, where the E as long lost is significant. Turning to wireline. 2025 marked a clear stabilization. Wireline services revenues improved quarter after quarter, ending the year with the lowest decline in more than two years. Internet revenues grew 1.7%, supported by 3,700 net additions in the quarter.
Television services also delivered strong momentum, with a 50% improvement in subscriber retention as compared to Q4 2024. This progress reflects disciplined pricing, avoiding overaggressive offers in our more expensive sales channels, all supported by our unmatched customer experience. New services, including Freedom Home Internet and Fizz TV, are still in the early stages and represent only a small portion of the overall contribution, offering significant further upside for 2026. In parallel, the expansion of our Helix-based internet and TV services into new regions of Quebec will complement our wireless footprint and enhance cross-selling opportunities. Our illico+ platform also reached an important milestone, surpassing half a million subscribers earlier in the year. It continued to gain traction within the French-speaking community across Canada, adding nearly 60,000 subscribers in 2025, including 20,000 Q4 alone.
Its original French language catalog, supported by renewed investment in local content creation and enhanced user experience, are clearly resonating among OTT platform users. Focus on customer experience is not a new strategic priority for us. Ever since we completely overhauled Videotron after we acquired it in 2000, customer focus has been at the heart of all our plans and initiatives. We have been the undisputed leader in client experience in Quebec for more than 15 years, arguably the most important contributing factor to our success. 2025, we continued to increase our advantage over our competitors in that respect with several more distinctions. Just recently, Videotron, Fizz and Freedom Mobile all stood out again in Léger January 2026 WOW Index, undeniably demonstrating their unwavering commitment to exceptional customer experience.
The survey once again ranked Videotron as the top telecom provider in Quebec for in-store experience for a third consecutive year, while Fizz held its position as a Canadian leader in online experience for the seventh consecutive year, and Freedom maintained its podium with its third place for online expectations. I'm sorry, online experience. These remarkable results clearly demonstrate our relentless efforts to always exceed customers' expectations, both in traditional settings and on digital platforms. We are constantly optimizing our sales channels to bring the best value proposition that fit our customer true need, while maintaining the industry lowest cost of acquisition with a healthier mix than our competitors, who, oddly enough, tend to offer more aggressive deals in retail, the most expensive sales channel.
Even more remarkable is the outstanding performance of Videotron, Fizz, and Freedom, reflected in 2025 annual report recently released by the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, the CCTS. While total complaints about Canadian telecom provider rose by another 17%, our brands have once again delivered superior customer satisfaction. In its first appearance in the report as a nationwide service provider, our group of brands was in a class of its own, with stable numbers despite significant subscriber base growth, while the other major national carriers experienced high complaint increases. Specifically, the Videotron brand maintained its leadership with a 6.6 reduction, our fourth consecutive annual decline in complaints. Quebec Office de la protection du consommateur did not list Videotron among its main sources of customer complaints in 2025, contrary to some of our key competitors.
I think these results are collectively a testament to our effectiveness of our strategy, rooted in transparency, respect, and consistent execution, all of which contribute to maintain our churn levels among the industry's best. Also contributing to our growth, as well as to our customers' long-standing satisfaction and lower churn, are the multiple ongoing technology improvements we're making to our net. On the wireline side, we're happy to see good take-up rates on higher speed tiers using both our HFC and fiber footprints. In wireless, we are experiencing accelerating growth in our IoT business, with much more to come in the near future. Meanwhile, Fizz rolled out 5G services late last year, covering over 22 million Canadians in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, with faster speeds for streaming and gaming on compatible plans.
Fizz also launched a new modem, providing better speed and reliability, which is resonating strongly with our community. Overall, 2025 was a defining year for our telecom segment. The strength of our mobile business, bolstered by the Freedom acquisition, combined with disciplined pricing, effective brand positioning, and optimized customer acquisition costs, generated our best mobile service margin growth in more than 5 years. While mobile ARPU now growing, wireline revenues stabilizing and market share continuing to rise, particularly in regions where significant potential remains, we're starting 2026 with a strong momentum and unshakable confidence in our ability to sustain discipline and profitable growth. Turning to the media segment. TVA reported Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 50 million in 2025, an increase of CAD 39 million compared to 2024.
This improvement reflects a favorable retroactive royalty adjustment for specialty channels recorded in the Q4 , as well as a significant cost saving from the various restructuring initiatives we have put in place over the last 18 months to offset the decline in advertising and subscription revenues affecting the entire private television industry. The royalty adjustment is not a gain, but rather a significant revenue shortfall that penalized TVA for years. This non-recurring adjustment enabled us to repay part of the accumulated deficit, but does not change the fundamental situation. Despite this performance in 2025, TVA still has cumulative net losses attributable to shareholders of CAD 61 million, due mainly to falling subscriber numbers and advertising revenues in the conventional television business.
Faced with these systemic declines that are threatening TVA financial position, we have acted responsibly and implemented a series of restructuring measures over the years, including significant workforce reduction and the centralization of TVA media teams, studios, and newsroom to improve efficiency. These efforts have yielded significant savings, given the decline in revenues due to the market domination by the web giants and the unreasonable regulatory burden under which we operate, we must and will continue our optimized effort and will maintain budgetary discipline. We will continue to fight to keep a strong private broadcaster to make sure our French audience will continue to get diversity of entertainment and information, not letting Radio-Canada being the only broadcaster.
On the positive side, despite these major structural challenges, audiences continue to choose our channels, while we are maintaining our market share dominance with a 41.8% market share in 2025, up 1.1 points for 2024. I will now let Eric review our detailed financial results.
Merci, Pierre-Karl. On a consolidated basis, in the Q4 of 2025, Quebecor recorded revenues of CAD 1.5 billion, up CAD 47 million, or 3% from last year. EBITDA reached CAD 610 million, an increase of CAD 21 million, or 4%, or CAD 44 million, or 8% increase when excluding both the unfavorable impact of a CAD 67 million rise in share-based compensation expense across all of the corporation segments, and also the favorable impact of CAD 44 million related to the retroactive application of a royalty agreement for specialty channels in the media segment. Cash flows from operating activities increased CAD 130 million to CAD 522 million, up 33% compared to the same quarter last year.
In our telecom segment, telecom total revenues grew 1.5% or CAD 19 million, marking a second consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth. This performance was driven by mobile service revenues, which were up 9.5%, our strongest increase of the year, supported by sustained subscriber growth, improving mobile ARPU, and steady ARPU progression across all wireline services. With rigorous cost management, Adjusted EBITDA reached CAD 590 million in the quarter, up CAD 24 million or 4%, representing our best annual EBITDA growth since 2019. As a result, Adjusted EBITDA margin improved 1.2 percentage points to 45.9%, up from 44.7% last year.
Telecom CapEx spending, excluding spectrum licenses, increased by CAD 55 million for the full year and CAD 44 million in Q4, reflecting favorable impact of governmental credits recorded in Q4 of last year, and also our continued 5G and 5G+ network expansion and wireline equipment investments. Adjusted cash flows from operations declined CAD 7 million year-over-year and CAD 20 million for the quarter. As anticipated, 2025 was a higher investment year to ensure network expansion remains aligned with our growth ambitions. Our media segment reported revenues of CAD 239 million in Q4, an increase of 23% or CAD 44 million year-over-year, generated an EBITDA of CAD 54 million, representing an improvement of CAD 39 million, largely driven by the favorable impact of retroactive agreements that we've spoken about before.
Our sports and entertainment segment revenues decreased by 16% to $58 million in Q4, and EBITDA was also down to $1.5 million. Quebecor reported a net income attributable to shareholders of $212 million in the quarter, or $0.93 per share, compared to a net income of $178 million, or $0.76 per share, reported in the same quarter last year. Adjusted Net Income, excluding unusual items and losses on valuation of financial instruments, came in at $226 million, or $0.99 per share, compared to an Adjusted Net Income of $187 million, or $0.80 per share last year.
For the full year, Quebecor's revenues were up by 0.7% to CAD 5.7 billion. EBITDA was up by 1.1% to CAD 2.4 billion. Excluding the unfavorable impact of the CAD 111 million increase in share-based compensation expense across all our segments, we would have been up 4.7%, driven by the strong growth, obviously, in the share price of 2025. I'm also including in that adjustment the favorable CAD 26 million impact related to the retroactive media adjustment for the full year. EBITDA from our telecom segment grew 4%, an improvement of CAD 84 million over last year, excluding the impact of stock-based compensation.
As of the end of the quarter, Quebecor's net debt to EBITDA ratio decreased to 2.95 x, still the lowest by quite some margin of all of our telecom competitors in Canada. On November 30th, 20th, rather, of last year, 2025, Videotron issued CAD 800 million of senior notes yielding 3.95%, marking the lowest seven-year credit spread ever achieved in the Canadian telecommunication sector. The net proceeds, combined with cash on hand, were used for the redemption of Videotron's 5.125% senior notes, which were maturing on April 15th, 2027.
Our balance sheet remains very strong, with available liquidity of over CAD 1.6 billion at the end of the Q4 , pro forma the $500 million increase in the revolving credit facility, which happened on January 28 of this year, 2026. In 2025, we purchased and canceled 5.3 million Class B shares for a total investment of CAD 218 million. In light of these results, and following our plan to distribute between 30% and 50% of our free cash flows, I'm happy to report that Quebecor's board of directors declared yesterday a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.40 per share for both Class A and Class B shares, up from CAD 0.35 per share, or an increase of 14%. We thank you for your attention. We'll now open the lines for your questions.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions, please press Star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised, and should you wish to decline from the process, please press Star followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, you will need to lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press Star one now if you have any questions. Thank you. Your first question will be from Sebastiano Petti at J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for taking the question. I just want to see, Pierre Karl, and if you could unpack maybe expectations around capital returns. I think you've touched on, increasing the dividend by 14% to CAD 0.40 a share, in line with your policies. How should we think about your commitment to maintaining 3 turns of leverage, as the underlying EBITDA growth seems to be accelerating in the business and, you know, operating leverage is coming through? Then a follow-up question. I mean, what are the pros and cons, or how is the team evaluating potential US listing or, some way to maybe unlock, you know, the, improve the float in shares?
That's a, you know, question, kind of, concern that, you know, we hear from some shareholders, given the limited float and liquidity. Thank you.
Thank you, Sebastiano. Well, you know, we, the policy basically, you know, out of our board of directors conversation and discussion is, you know, to use the free cash flow that we're generating on a yearly basis, you know, and to split it's quite simple. At the end of the day, I guess, that it's not rocket science, you know? It's reducing our debt. If there's no such a large transaction or acquisitions, which is what is around the market right now, but this can change. Right now, you know, this is what we're seeing. The split is between reducing debt, paying dividends and buying back stock, and this is what we've been doing for the last 2 years.
Despite, you know, the Freedom acquisition, which cash-wise was not a big demand. We've been able to maintain this, and I think that the market reward the company for this policy, and we can expect, and I would ask maybe to give them the exact percentage of payout. We said that, you know, we were gonna have a bracket in terms of payout between 20 and-
30 and 50.
30.
We're at 35 now.
We're at 35.
Yes.
We're always been, you know, on the low side of the bracket. I think it will remain that way, other than, you know, special situations that can take place. We're not seeing it for the moment. That can change. I guess that we've been always opportunistic and life, you know, for the last decades. If something was to happen, you know, we'll be ready to be there and participate. For the U.S. listing, certain, you know, I guess that we've never really had the chance to think about it. I would thank you know, to bring it. We'll try to find out, you know, what could be the advantages of it. Obviously, the flow is of importance.
Adding a diversity of shareholders, also, how this will deal with the exchange rate, you know, these kind of things are not something that we should avoid. Since we're not the fifty-first state of the U.S.
Yes.
No, we should not joke around.
Okay.
Sorry about that. You know, we'll look at it, certainly, Sebastiano.
Real quick, just following up on the leverage point. I mean, you're at 2.95 now. Should we... You know, you just issued paper at a pretty, you know, attractive yield. Is there any reason to think that you'd let it drift lower from the 2.95 exiting 2025, or is this, you know, more or less, you know, hugging 3 turns, is the way that we should kind of think about how you and Pierre Karl, you know, plan to kind of, you know, run the business? You know, obviously excluding, you know, anything, you know, inorganic or other opportunities that may avail themselves. Thank you.
Again, we'll see, Sebastiano, something I think is of importance, we've been working very hard for two, three years because we thought that maybe, you know, we're not sure that we were treated fairly regarding our credit rate. We've been fighting to have our investment grade status, which obviously brings significant advantages. We can talk, you know, about the last issue we did, which is, you know, the lowest of the industry. We don't have to play with our balance sheet, issuing, you know, very expensive hybrid instruments. We have clear classical debt for which, you know, we've been seeing, as you look at the, you know, more details regarding our interest expenses, you know, they're down significantly.
At the end of the day, this is more money on our free cash flow for shareholders, either on a purchase or on a buyback purchase on a dividend basis. If we were to able to continue to be able to get an even better ratio, I don't think this is something that doesn't worth, you know, the exercise.
Thank you, Bob.
Thank you. Next question will be from Maher Yaghi at Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Merci d'avoir pris, mon appel et mes questions. I just wanted to ask you know, after a period of relative rational pricing in the second half of last year, you know, we have seen some aggressive discounting early this year. You know, I'm more concerned about investor perception, about, how that could affect, interest to invest in the Canadian telecom sector. You know, based on feedback we've received, do you think the market could get more rational if all players moved to reporting, net accounts, additions, and ARPA, instead of reporting subscriber loading and ARPU, pushing you guys to focus more on convergence efforts and away from just adding low-calorie subscribers? You know, T-Mobile is doing that in the US, starting in Q1.
What do you think about just the general concept of, of moving in that direction?
Well, Maher, you're probably right, but, you know, it is what it is. I mean, you know, we, I remember we started in Vidéotron in 2000, and we were releasing on a quarterly basis, how many subscribers we will get on a quarterly basis. I remember that very well, and I thought that was a little bit crazy, but, you know, it is what it is. We all knew that at the end of the quarter, to get better, you know, subscriber numbers, the industry was giving away cable subscription. What, a month later or a month and a half later, finding out that the customers were not paying, you know, they were disconnecting them.
I guess this is really stupid, but it is certainly, this is something that we stopped doing. We were forced to continue to release our subscriber numbers. The cable, we add other services, wireline, telephony, internet customers, and then wireless customers. We just copy and paste the practices that I guess probably also the analysts were looking for. I don't know other what to say. Maybe, you got better ideas than I have.
No, I don't have any other ideas. I mean, it's, you know, Maher, it's a bit counterintuitive, you know, that you guys would be asking for less disclosure than we already give out. I certainly see where you're going with this. Maybe the, just the last point that I would make on this is that we... You know, honestly, for us, as you know, even though we have been having the highest growth for quite some time, and certainly intend to continue to have the highest growth, we don't manage based on net adds, and have not. I think, you can see from our actions over the past quarters, that we focus on profitable growth, not just growth at any price.
You know, should there be an industry move towards, not reporting, net adds, you know, we'd certainly go along with it. I mean.
We're good students.
Yeah, well, we can follow. We're certainly not remunerated in any way based on growth, as opposed to maybe some other people. I don't know. We'd be certainly fine with that. I guess you're gonna have, Maher, to continue your evangelization with the rest of the industry, and we'll follow suit with pleasure.
Maybe it worth to mention.
Thank you. We're work in progress, I guess.
Just quickly, Maher, it may be worth to mention to you that your compensation is not based on units, it's not based on RGU, it's not based on EBITDA, it's based on free cash flow.
Yes, thank you.
Free cash flow. How to generate, you know, out of your business.
All right. Great, thank you. Thank you for that feedback. Very helpful. Maybe just a follow-up question regarding 2026. Can, you know, generally, you give not, like a specific guidance number, but some general sense of where you could land on free cash flow and maybe a directional view on CapEx. Can you share with us your expectations going into 2026 here, please?
Sure. For 2026, as I think I've said before, a while back, we were looking, and we're still on that track, looking at gradual measured increases in CapEx year after year. As we've done in 2025, you see, we've increased CapEx by CAD 77 million. It is certainly our intention to continue to invest in our networks. You can expect, you know, another gradual and measured increase of, you know, I'm not gonna give you the number, but, you know, roughly equal to what we've been experiencing in 2025.
Which would make sense, to continue to, you know, to make, to ensure that the performance and reliability of our networks and our customer experience remains high. That's in terms of, that's in terms of CapEx. You also were looking at, what was your first question again?
Free cash flow. I mean, you know, last year you gave us kind of a billion-dollar free cash flow, working forward to, you know, what would be a number for 2026?
Well, you know, for 2025, we had said we generate CAD 1 billion. We generated CAD 1.1 billion. We're reporting free cash flow, CAD 1 billion, an increase of, you know, CAD 1 billion or not an increase, CAD 1 billion for free cash flow. There's, you know, if you look at it, there's about CAD 300 million of working cap increase coming from, you know, three ma
in areas. Mostly the stock-based compensation, which, as you know, is the increase is very high. Being non-cash, it comes back in the working cap at the end. Also, we have translated more than CAD 100 million of accounts receivables into cash.
Also, don't forget we had talked about this in the past, that we last year, I think, or more than a year ago, switched our approach in wireline from selling the boxes to renting the boxes or leasing the boxes. Which obviously had an impact of, the first impact of increasing CapEx, but also, you know, it allowed us to lower our accounts receivable. That, we got a bit of a help there. On an ongoing basis, you know, we'd be looking at CAD 1.1 billion, possibly more, of free cash flow for this year, depending on obviously, the top line.
I would point to the fact that no matter what happens on the top line, as we can't predict the future in terms of, you know, competitive environment and all that, our margin, you should look at our margin improvements over the past few quarters, that we've been able to flow through increasing amounts of cash down to the bottom line. We certainly intend and see that we can continue to do that. We can always do better. You know, people always ask us on OpEx and on operating, or are you in wireline? Are you know, is there more? You know, there's always more, there's always more. Wireless is a bit different because we're still investing, obviously, in new brands and expanding brands.
There's always more. We can always do better in OpEx, and we certainly intend to do so. I would certainly expect a growing cash flow in 2026.
Thanks.
Next question, please.
Next question is from Matthew Griffiths at Bank of America.
Great, thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could share maybe, you know, the work you're doing to expand your network in Manitoba. I mean, obviously, like, half the population is in one city. You know, like, is this gonna be... Anything you can share? I'm not sure what you, what you feel comfortable with, but it would be helpful on timeline, and what we could expect, and how much of the increase maybe in CapEx is associated with that being an additional work stream versus replacing other work streams that have fallen off. Then in, is there any reason for us to expect the inflection to positive ARPU to continue or reverse in the coming year? If you could share some expectations around that, it would be helpful. Thanks.
You can take that, Jason.
Thank you, Matthew. On Manitoba, you will probably remember that, you know, we acquired spectrum, even before, you know, the Freedom acquisition, because we were considering that that would be an interesting market. In fact, you know, we built an even stronger spectrum base, added to then, you know, all of the systems that we acquired with Freedom being able to operate, you know, quickly. We started there. I would say that, you know, the logic is basically the same than elsewhere. In fact, it's been also the same that, as an example, we use in NBC, a region there where, you know, we started as a PPIA.
Once, you know, we've been building a significant customer base, then it was a very profitable way to move and build our own network. The difference with wireless is that we have obligation in front of ISED for deployment. Obviously, you know, we will respect that, but we have time in front of us. Something that we need also to consider is the roaming prices. You know, they've been fluctuating significantly for the last two years. Roaming is obviously for incumbent operators, not what it used to be, I guess not only in Canada, but everywhere in the world. There's some pressure there. I would say that the roaming environment is favorable to MVNOs, other than at the end of the day, you know, building your own net.
We will follow the same strategy and moving forward, time to time, in our CapEx program, including Manitoba as an operational base also. I asked to answer the second piece of your question.
Yes, Matt, on ARPU, on ARPU, we've got momentum. You see it. We were obviously starting from a lower base than our competition, we have turned positive, contrary to the others. You know, the silly answer is obviously to tell you it really depends on the competitive environment going forward. Should it stay, how would I call it? Irrationally, or unpredictably, maybe is a better word, competitive, then perhaps are we looking at a stability of our ARPU going forward. You know what? Our, our, our, my, my gut feeling is that we've got momentum there, and we can take some heat on that.
Okay.
It, you know, depending on what happens, we are certainly in a better position than our competition on this. I'm confident that cooler heads will prevail and that we will be able to continue growing ARPU going forward. You know, we've got a good momentum going, and don't forget that, you know, there's a, you know, there's a machine, you know, it's, you know, inertia, the concept of inertia. It takes a while to get going, but it takes a while to stop. We're quite confident on ARPU.
And so-
Maybe can I just ask, like, two quick follow-ups. One is just a clarification on your CapEx, Q.
Yes.
Was the CAD 70 million more or less increase year-over-year, that's basically for the telecom segment? Am I correct? Or is that for consolidated?
Yes, that's correct.
Okay.
Well, I think it's pretty much both. It's very close to both. Yeah, we increased by 70, from memory, about 77, which was pretty much all in telecom, to be honest. Yeah.
The other thing I wanted to touch on, if I could, just briefly, is that you mentioned, or in your, in the MD&A, it mentions how, like, lower Third-Party Internet sales kind of was a negative for your internet revenue this quarter. I just was wondering if you could share any more detail on that, because obviously, the fear of that growing across the industry is prevalent within the market, but you're reporting that for you, it's declining. Any color would be helpful.
I'm sorry, Matt, I'm not sure what you're referring to. Our internet revenues are actually increasing.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
Within that, I think you report if you sell to a third party, so if someone else resells your network, that those revenues that you get from the third party get included in your internet revenue.
Oh.
I think that your materials mentioned that that is declining. Your, the amount that third parties are selling of your network is going down.
Oh, I see.
so maybe-
How much of that?
Maybe there's nothing to share there. If there is something you're seeing within the market and as it affects you, that would be interesting to hear.
Honestly, there's nothing material in what Bell or others are reselling for us. It's honestly, Matt, it's honestly insignificant or immaterial, honestly. It's not what's driving the sort of the change of and the positive revenue situation in internet and wireline. No.
Okay.
Well, my understanding, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I should not think out loudly. You know, we, on the internet side, now, don't forget that, you know, a lot of TPIAs were bought by Bell. You know, they moved customers that we had as TPIA. They were TPIAs to us. They moved those customers to, on their network, at a cost, which was completely crazy. Yes, you, there's always a cost to acquire customers, certainly, there are some that are much more expensive than others. On that, I guess that, you know, they went on a very expensive way. Since, you know, this trend is over because the customers is already moved, our TPIA base is more stable now.
Exactly.
Perfect. Thank you so much for the answers, guys.
Thank you, Matt.
Next question will be from David McFadgen at ATB Cormark. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Yeah, a couple of questions. We saw, you know, you guys benefited from big working capital inflow for 2026. I'm just wondering if you can hold that, or do you think that there's gonna be a reversal in 2026?
Not a reversal. I mean, some of the... Well, it depends. As I said, you know, the three main contributors are basically stock-based compensation. Who knows, if our stock keeps climbing, maybe there will be. I think it would be fair to say that that's probably not gonna hit us as much in 2026. The rest, I would also assume on the receivables, that would quiet down. My answer to you would be more, certainly no reversal, but, probably, a lot less impact from working cap in 2026.
Okay. Okay. Just on the CapEx, I was wondering if you could share with us, you know, where you're gonna be spending that CapEx? What are the priorities? Is it gonna be focused on Ontario, the wireless network in Ontario, or are you gonna really be moving to improve things out west? If you can provide some color there.
Well, I would say, David, that we're pretty fair with all our segments of the business. Never think, you know, never forget that, you know, wireline and wireless are well integrated between each other. You need, you know, a backhaul, and backhaul is good for all sorts of services, from the internet to the wireless. Geographically, you know, we will continue to improve our network. It's been done on an economical basis. As much as we have customers in a certain area and where we have spectrum, it will be profitable for us, you know, to build and avoid roaming prices, even if roaming prices is lower, but it's still roaming.
It is something cash out of the company, where once you build, you know, you're there for, I'm not gonna say forever, but certainly, you know, for a very long time. This is how intensive and telecom industry works. We're not reinvent the wheel. It's been like this forever, and we follow, you know, the rules and the lessons of profitable growth.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thank you, David. Next question, please.
Next question is from Stephanie Price at CIBC. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I wanted to circle back on internet. It was good to see another quarter of growth in wireline. Just hoping you can talk a bit about the competitive environment in internet and the pricing environment you're seeing in Quebec here. How sustainable do you think the current level of growth is?
I will also. Hi, Stephanie. Well, Ig will certainly have comments on this. I'll start by saying that, and you will remember, we very often says, and you know that because it's been like this forever, I would say, that, you know, prices in Quebec or in our incumbent footprint, have been always much lower than anywhere else in Canada. We've been seeing. Well, I would say it's understandable. You know, Bell was losing significant amount of customers. We've been able to, you know, to experience significant growth on wireline. Obviously, on the internet side, you know, we grew significantly. I guess that, you know, Bell management and board of directors thought that, you know, this is unsustainable business, therefore, they need to invest in fiber.
Once they invested, they decided that they need, you know, to get customers, which is a good idea, I would say. From there, they decided that, you know, they will lower the prices. They will come very aggressively against Videotron, and, well, for certain years, they were successful. The last numbers we've been seeing shows that this doesn't exist anymore. We've been seeing probably, you know, a more mature thinking from their perspective. We always said that we're not gonna go there, we're not gonna follow. And yes, we lost subscribers, we lost customers, but, you know, the equation was we were more ready to lose a certain amount of customers instead of seeing a repricing strategy hitting our, on our number.
We decided that we'll follow this rule, and I would say that probably, you know, we were right. We look forward to be in a more normal kind of situation, and we will continue to. This is certainly also, as I mentioned to my speech in my report, number one, customer satisfaction. Yes, it's about price, but not only on prices. I think that the market recognized that. Not the market, I mean the customer. Customers, the customers market experienced this, and this is why, you know, we've been experiencing a much lower decline than other cable providers in North America, in the US, obviously, and, you know, certainly also in certain cable operators in Canada. I don't know if you have some things to add.
I think you've touched on the major points. Just to add a couple of things, Stephanie, we are indeed, as Pierre-Karl said, continuing to see intense activity in Quebec and wireline, but more disciplined, as he said. Anyway, there's nothing that leads us to believe that that can't continue. We seem to be in an environment that is more rational, and we certainly expect it to continue. Another point, we're also seeing an increasing adoption of higher speeds, which is playing to our advantage. We certainly see that continuing as well. In terms of a revenue perspective, we feel that we've turned a bit of a corner and are prudently positive for the rest of the year.
Okay, great to hear. Just to follow up, just on spectrum. Hubaco is rolling out its 3800 MHz spectrum, and you didn't receive any spectrum in the recent residual spectrum auction. Just curious how you're thinking about spectrum requirements and the spectrum rollout at this point.
Well, you know, as you know, we saw there was an auction recently. We participate, we participated, obviously. We, and probably, you know, another sign of discipline there, but we're not lacking spectrum. Yes, we participate, we bid, and the result is that we don't acquire anything. We'll have more details in the near future when ISED will release all the numbers. Our preliminary understanding is, you know, the prices for spectrum was quite expensive, was quite high. We've been seeing where some of our competitors were lacking spectrum, probably, you know, a more aggressive perspective to acquire it. We don't feel any prejudice there. For the next auction, we'll see.
We don't know when the trial will happen, but, we're certainly gonna be there, as we've been there for the last, what, 15 years now, or even more than that.
Yeah.
Something to add, Craig?
No, no. On spectrum, as Pierre-Karl said, we're pretty comfortable with our spectrum position, and we'll continue to participate, but not at crazy prices. If prices do get crazy, then we just, you know, we'll stay on the sidelines, so.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Stephanie.
Next question is from Jérome Dubreuil at Desjardins.
Jerome.
A few questions today. First one, you launched a fixed wireless service in Ontario towards the end of last year. I'm wondering if this is something you're really leaning into at this time, if you have significant capacity to offer there, or it's just maybe something to, I don't know, to keep competition in check?
Well, Jerome, a very interesting question. In fact, you know, shortly, we'll go in Barcelona next week, you know, that the World Mobile Congress, we will continue to talk with our vendors, finding out, you know, what we can expect in terms of technology. You're right to say that, you know, we already launched it. In fact, you know, we've been having conversation with our vendors for many years. As of now, we'll continue to go there. We experienced it. Is fixed wireless right now able to replace what wireline is able to provide? The answer would be no. Will this remain always true forever? Will it be true in three, in five, in seven years?
This we don't know, but the thing that we know is that technologies always improve, and the technology in wireline also, so it's gonna go in parallel. We've been, I'm not gonna say under trial mode, but, you know, this is certainly something that we need to look at, and the best experience is providing services to customers, to figuring out, you know, where we should position ourselves in the future.
That's great. Good context. Second question for me is, I know you're not providing wireless EBITDA or wireless margins anymore, but maybe directionally, has there been a material change in the trend there? Just looking if the recent growth that we've been seeing in wireless has come to any change in the margin profile.
No, Jérome, we are, as you saw, our service revenue increased 9.5%. It keeps increasing more every quarter. We are continuing to generate increasing margin. We are, you know, that being said, we are obviously continuing to invest. I mean, we do have, you know, branding and advertising expenses and some operating expenses in wireless that. I think, you know, directionally, from our revenue position, I think you can, there's not been any major margin changes. We keep increasing our margin in both wireless. I know that's your question, I'll take the opportunity to underline once again that we're continuing to increase our margins in wireline as well, due to our favorable revenue situation as well.
Merci beaucoup.
Thank you.
Our last question is from Vince Valentini at TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks very much.
Morning, Vince.
I can't promise it's your last question, but it's your last question here. Well, I wanna start with wireless sub adds. I know, and I heard you repeat it again today, Hugh, that you're not running the business based on a subscriber volume target. You're running it based on optimizing free cash flow. We all know it seems like a very weak market, you know, almost no population growth in Canada. Throughout Q1, there have been signals that the market is extremely slow. Is it fair to say that if you don't get back to 310,000 sub adds for this year, that's acceptable, as long as your share of industry net adds is still best in class?
Well, Vince, we will continue to service the market as best as possible. We all know that there are some factors that were there previously that are not there anymore. We know about, you know, the immigration factor. This is something that, you know, obviously, we are not in a position to control. We control our destiny regarding services, regarding prices, regarding innovation. Again, I think it's worth, you know, to mention that we innovate. One of the best example, the recent, the more recent one is that, you know, we've been offering Roam Beyond, not only in North America anymore, but worldwide. Again, that's, you know. Sometimes, you know, we think innovation is original. This is original, but it's, you know, good experience and execution plan.
This is what we offer, and we will continue to work in this direction. Will this end it, you know, with the same kind of result that we've been able to enjoy for the last year, for the last 12 months? As you know, we're not giving any guidances, but we consider that these have been the winning formula, and we will continue to work on it. As I mentioned, it works, so why changing a winning formula? I know it's just,
Yeah, no, that's fair enough. Move on. Try to clarify a couple of things from earlier. One, on CapEx. I'm not sure. I don't see 77. I see it more like a CAD 50 million increase in CapEx.
Yeah, it is 50. Yeah, it is 50.
Okay.
I just checked to answer the question. I think it was more 55 than 77. I gave you the wrong number, but it is 55. You're right, Vince.
Using that CAD 615 million number for telecom segment, CapEx, as a starting point, you don't wanna give guidance, but I mean, something in the same range of a year-over-year increase of CAD 50 million-CAD 60 million off of that base is a reasonable expectation for us at this point?
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, that's exactly what I was saying. Yep.
Okay. To piece that back together with the free cash flow comment, and I think you answered it this way, but then at the end, you said something different, so I just wanna make sure. You're not saying that you can do better than CAD 1.4 billion of free cash flow in 2026. What you're saying is you can do better than CAD 1.1 billion pre-
Correct
... working capital, and the pre-cap working capital is a bit hard to determine, but unlikely to be as high as CAD 300 billion again. Is that a fair way to characterize it?
That's exactly what I thought I said, and if I didn't, that's what I should have said.
No, maybe you did. Maybe it's just me, but wanted to be perfectly clear. Just last little thing, again, it's been asked. Somebody asked about the TPIA wholesale revenue that you receive. I just wanna flip it around. Is there any meaningful increase in the number of TPIA subs that you are taking advantage of by reselling other people's networks in the Q4 , that 3,700 number? Were there a meaningful amount that were on other people's networks as opposed to your own?
Well, you're right, Vince. I guess that, you know, this is something that we didn't emphasize on, but, you know, it's open season. I mean, you know, for everyone. Yes, it's true. We're gaining customers on others people network, for which we combine, you know, our offer with wireless. This combined offers, brings, and I guess that Videotron has been a very strong brand. It's not because we don't operate as an internet or a cable subscriber provider, that people don't know us. In fact, you know, they know us. Many times, they have a chalet or our service in, let's say, Montreal, like Videotron, but they're not serviced in their, call it, the chalet.
Cottage.
You know, with the, with another... Now, we're in a better situation to cover all their expectations. I think that this just to end the question and say we cannot say this is material. This is why we were not emphasizing on number-wise.
That's all I wanna make sure. Yeah. It's not.
Yeah, yeah, no.
... 20,000 TPIA and lost 17,000 on your own network.
No, no.
Nothing like that going on. Okay.
No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. I'll just point to the fact, to another just, I know you know that, Vince, but, you know, we're not selling at a loss on the TPIA front. We're doing this obviously to, you know, as a wireless play, as a churn, and as a wireless play. We're not selling at a loss on the wireline front. This is not something that we're, you know, we're not going crazy all out to, and replacing profitable customers with unprofitable ones. I just wanted to make sure I added that to what Gaukhel said.
Which means you're reselling cable networks, not reselling fiber networks for the most part, right?
Correct, yes.
Perfect.
We like HFC. We like HFC, yes.
Sorry for so many questions. Congrats on the results, guys.
But, Vince, just before I can't help but not to underline. You know, in your note this morning, you said that over CAD 1 billion of cash flow is unlikely to excite investors. Can I ask you a question? What do you want me to say?
Well, you just did $1.4 billion, that's why we're asking you. I think-
What will excite you?
I think you answered it.
1.1. All right.
Keep it going, keep it going higher.
Yes.
Thank you.
Thanks, Vince.
We'd like to thank you all. Just, you know, the last word was... Well, the last two words would say that, I'm quite surprised that, you know, you didn't ask any questions regarding AI, which is, you know, seems to be the buzzword, you know, for the last, few months. We didn't address, you know, this also in our, in our reports. Just to tell you that, you know, we're obviously, you know, work on those issues, and the issues of AI is, for us, the capacity, you know, to be even more efficient in our operation, to reduce our expenses. In fact, you know, we've been doing AI for many, many years before it happened, because for us, it means automation.
Automation always reduce our expenses, and we've been obviously implementing our automation processes for many years ago. This is why, you know, we've been seeing our expenses going down and our operation more efficient for the last many years before. Just to tell you also, obviously, you guys watch equity, but there was a report this morning which I thought it would be interesting, because sometimes we don't talk enough about debt. This gentleman by the name of Nicholas Kim of BMO, on the debt side, released a report, and obviously, I like, you know, the title. It says, "A gold medal performance." This is about the bonds, and it worth, you know, reading it.
For all of you, we thank you attending our conference call, and watch for our next quarter results and being with you again. Thank you very much, and have a nice day.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Quebecor Inc.'s financial results for the Q4 and full year 2025 conference call. Thank you for participating, and have a nice day.