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Horn confirmed that Joe Natale, the former Telus CEO hired to replace Laurence, will start in July. Rogers previously attempted to negotiate an earlier start date with Telus, which has a non-compete contract with Natale that doesn’t expire until July. Telus didn’t bite.

Rogers’ stock surged more than 6.5 per cent to $56 per share by late afternoon.

Rogers beat Bay Street’s expectations when it came to its wireless business. It added 93,000 postpaid wireless subscribers in the quarter, the highest growth since 2009 and triple the number of subscribers it added in the same period last year. Average revenue per user, an important industry metric, also rose.

CFO Tony Staffieri credited the expansion to a growing market size and consumers using more data – overall data usage jumps 40 per cent to 50 per cent monthly, he said – signing up for larger data plans and adding more devices. He anticipates the growth will be stable.

Internet subscribers jumped by 30,000 in the quarter, two and a half times greater than subscriber gains in 2015. Approximately 46 per cent of Rogers’ residential subscribers now receive high-speed Internet of more than 100 Mbps, which is now available to its entire Canadian footprint.

Rogers blamed the Canadian telecom regulator’s decision to lower wholesale Internet rates for dampening its profit in the Internet and cable divisions.

Cord cutting slowed for the cable giant. Rogers lost 13,000 television subscribers for a total of 76,000 fewer TV customers in 2016, down by about 40 per cent from 2015 losses.