BCE Inc. reported its first-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as its revenue rose.

The company said its profit attributable to common shareholders totalled $616 million or 66 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31.

The result compared with a profit of $630 million or 68 cents per diluted share for the first quarter of 2025.

Operating revenue totalled $6.17 billion, up from $5.93 billion a year earlier.

The company said the increase came as service revenue totalled $5.35 billion, up from $5.17 billion, while product revenue rose to $818 million, compared with $758 million a year ago.

For the first time, BCE disclosed its revenue from its Bell Business Markets segment, which includes income from retail business customers of its telecom services, along with its growing focus on AI-powered solutions. The latter is comprised of revenue from Ateko, Bell Cyber and Bell Al Fabric, which were launched in 2025 as anchors of BCE’s pivot toward tech services.

The company said business markets revenue was up 9.7 per cent year-over-year, driven by 113 per cent growth in AI-powered solutions revenue.

“Last year, we outlined our strategy for AI-powered enterprise solutions and introduced three businesses — Ateko, Bell Cyber and Bell AI Fabric,” said BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic in a press release.

“Since then, we’ve made big strides, reflecting Bell’s unique position in the Canadian market that intersects connectivity, deep relationships with Canada’s biggest enterprises and now purpose-built AI infrastructure.”

On an adjusted basis, BCE said it earned 63 cents per share in its latest quarter, down from an adjusted profit of 69 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

On the telecom side, BCE had a net gain of 16,947 postpaid mobile phone subscribers in its first quarter, compared with a net loss of 9,598 activations during the same period a year earlier. It said the year-over-year improvement reflected higher market activity due to increased promotions and more bring-your-own-device activations.

The company said customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — was 1.34 per cent, up from 1.21 per cent a year ago, “reflecting a more competitive market environment and elevated promotional activity.”

BCE’s mobile phone average revenue per user was $56.61, down 0.8 per cent from $57.08 a year ago. It said that decrease was due to factors such as higher discounting, lower overage revenue from customers subscribing to unlimited and larger capacity data plans, lower roaming revenue reflecting reduced international travel, and lower ancillary revenues from sources like connection fees.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2026.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press