However, they can't predict yet what measures the company will take to adapt to a post-pandemic environment.
They made the remarks after the
BCE and Bell chief executive
Bibic said even Bell's sport-related services held up, despite a lack of professional events, and thinks viewership will bounce back once events resume.
Similarly, Bibic said he expects a surge in wireless equipment sales, once consumers can return to stores that have been closed since mid-March.
"My sense is those who go out to shop are going out to shop with a purpose, and that's to buy rather than to just browse," Bibic said.
But the outlook for Bell's business customers is more complex, because some small- to mid-size enterprises may be unable to recover fully from the pandemic shut-downs while others may continue to make greater use of communications services by employees, suppliers and clients.
"While we have seen an increase in pricing concessions to customers, particularly in the SME space, as well as lower data equipment and business service solutions sales to larger enterprise customers, we also provide critical connectivity services needed to maintain business continuity," Bibic said.
Chief financial officer
"The financial impact of COVID-19 was limited in Q1 as government lockdown measures and related shutdown of businesses only went into effect towards the end of the quarter," LeBlanc said.
He said total service revenue remained positive for the full quarter but product revenue was down 10 per cent compared with a year earlier.
"This was a result of a significant reduction in wireless customer transactions attributable to retail channel disruptions as well as lower business wireline data equipment sales, given last year's strength and the current economic environment," LeBlanc added.
Earlier,
The company said its profit attributable to common shareholders was
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled
On an adjusted basis, BCE said it earned
Analysts on average had estimated BCE would earn an adjusted profit of
— by
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Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)
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