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His first priority remains customer service, the area of expertise he was known for at Telus Corp. One third of Rogers’ 26,000 employees serve customers daily, he said in the interview, adding he’s taking a look at their ideas for improvements rather than following the playbook he used at Telus.

“I believe we can drive the churn rates below one per cent, it’ll just take some time to do it in a way that’s sustainable,” he said.

Next he pointed to investment in networks, which he called the “lifeblood of our business,” and innovation to offer the best product and services. Finally, he mentioned growing the business across all markets with a focus on cost efficiency.

There are already signs of progress in customer experience, a historically shaky area for Rogers. The churn rate of subscribers leaving the company dropped to 1.05 per cent, the lowest in eight years, as average revenue per user increased 3.2 per cent to $62.13.

Rogers added 93,000 wireless subscribers in the three months ending June 30, topping analysts’ estimates of 77,000. Its top competitors Bell and Telus also enjoyed gains in the market after Rogers beat expectations for subscriber growth and reported higher demand for more expensive smartphone plans.

Demand for data is doubling every 16 to 18 months, Natale said.

“A healthy wireless market should benefit all operators,” RBC analyst Drew McReynolds noted to clients, pointing to increased demand for wireless services and limited competition from Shaw’s Freedom Mobile.

When it came to cable, Rogers lost 25,000 TV subscribers (analysts estimated it would lose 20,000) and gained 11,000 internet customers, lower than expectations of 22,000 additions.

Still, the strong wireless results overshadowed the weaker cable results, Desjardins analyst Maher Yaghi noted to clients.

“While this was likely an effect from positive industry trends,” he wrote, the lower-than-expected churn rate “should bode well for future quarters.”