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BCE Inc. won big in a five-day promotional standoff between Canada’s largest wireless carriers in the fourth quarter, reporting its best wireless performance in 15 years thanks to high consumer demand for unprecedented data deals.

Bell added 175,204 wireless subscribers on contract in the three months ended Dec. 31, up 56 per cent from the same period in 2016, the company said Thursday. Telus Corp. said it added 121,000 wireless customers in the same period, up 39 per cent for its strongest results in five years. Rogers Communications Inc. added only 72,000 customers.

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The Montreal and Vancouver-based telecoms credited the gains to successful responses to the aggressive holiday promotions that offered 10 gigabytes of data for $60 per month. Rogers, which triggered the deals, blamed its lower numbers on a computer glitch it said it has since fixed. The steep holiday discounts were widely seen as a response to Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile, which introduced similar plans for iPhones in November, even though Rogers insisted its move was unrelated.