Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Telus Corp., the Vancouver-based wireless carrier, said third-quarter profit fell as its customers made fewer calls from their mobile phones.

Net income dropped to C$280 million ($261 million), or 88 cents a share, from C$286 million, or 89 cents, a year earlier, Telus said today in a statement. The profit included a 4-cent tax gain. Analysts predicted profit of 83 cents a share, on average, in a Bloomberg survey.

Telus started selling Apple Inc.’s Web-browsing iPhone this week to revive customer spending, which slid this year amid the recession. The iPhone helped rival Rogers Communications Inc. boost wireless-data revenue 46 percent last quarter. The Canadian economy shrank in August, suggesting the country’s first recession since 1992 may not yet be over.

“It could still be several quarters before we see a meaningful improvement, given the slow economic recovery and rising wireless competition,” said Jonathan Allen, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto. He rates Telus “outperform.”

While the wireless unit’s profit fell 1.7 percent as customers traveled less and made fewer long-distance calls, wireless data revenue climbed 27% to C$229 million, Telus said.

Sales Decline

“We’re quite bullish on the future of data revenue growth,” Chief Financial Officer Robert McFarlane said on a conference call with analysts.

Sales declined 1.6 percent to C$2.41 billion. Average revenue per user, a measure of how much each customer spends on calls and data monthly, dropped 7.3 percent to C$59.45 in the quarter, Telus said. The company added 125,000 wireless subscribers in the period.

Greg MacDonald, an analyst at National Bank Financial in Toronto, predicted 133,000 new subscribers and estimated average revenue per customer would be C$59.39. He rates the shares “outperform.”

Telus fell 37 cents to C$33.61 at 4:10 p.m. on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The shares have dropped 9.6 percent this year before today, compared with a 12 percent decline for Rogers and 5.9 percent gain for BCE Inc., Canada’s largest telephone company.

Forecast

Telus lowered its full-year earnings forecast for profit and revenue as it spends more to introduce a new wireless network and the iPhone. Telus and BCE, which also introduced the device this week, pay a subsidy of about $400 on each iPhone they buy from Apple.

The success of the handset means Apple is “in the driver seat right now,” in terms of negotiating prices, McFarlane said in an interview. Growing competition among other handset makers has made them “definitely more cooperative in working with us,” he said.

Telus reduced its revenue forecast for the year to C$9.6 billion to C$9.7 billion from an earlier range of C$9.65 billion to C$9.8 billion. Basic earnings per share will be C$3.10 to C$3.30, down from an August projection of C$3.35 to C$3.55.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hugo Miller in Toronto at hugomiller@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 6, 2009 16:33 EST