Rogers sees wireless slowdown amid weak economy

By Wojtek Dabrowski

TORONTO (Reuters) - Rogers Wireless, Canada's largest mobile company, is seeing a slowdown in activity on its telecom network as a result of the darkening economic climate, its president said on Wednesday.

"You can start to see a slowing of traffic -- both consumer and business traffic -- and the roaming that goes along with that," Rob Bruce said during a presentation at an investor conference.

Rogers Communications Inc , which owns Rogers Wireless, first highlighted a slowdown in the wireless market in July, when it said it added 92,000 postpaid, or longer-term, wireless subscribers in the second quarter, down from 133,000 a year earlier.

"The building bad news from south of the border ... is starting to impact people's confidence," Bruce said on Wednesday. "Across the board, I think we can feel ... a tightening in the economy and we think there's going to be more ahead of us."

Bruce said the company has been preparing for a downturn and has clamped down on costs to deal with the current environment.

Rogers is also the only carrier in Canada using GSM wireless technology. Its two main rivals, BCE Inc and Telus Corp , use the CDMA format.

Having a GSM network has allowed Rogers to be the only Canadian carrier to offer Apple's popular iPhone, which combines a mobile phone, an iPod media player and a network browser into one device.

Bruce did not give specifics on how many iPhones it has sold since launching the handsets in July, but he said an overwhelming majority of subscribers are using data services like e-mail, text messaging and Web browsing.

It is these data applications, rather than just voice calling, that wireless companies see as the driver of their profits in the future.

"We're getting 90-plus percent data attach on these customers, so they're not taking the iPhone and just using voice," Bruce said.

Rogers shares dipped 3 Canadian cents to C$34.73 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($1=$1.04 Canadian)

(Reporting by Wojtek Dabrowski; editing by Rob Wilson)