July 28 (Bloomberg) -- Rogers Communications Inc., Canada’s largest wireless carrier, fell the most in almost five months in Toronto trading after lowering estimates for sales growth this year.

The stock dropped 4.9 percent after Toronto-based Rogers said today that full-year sales will climb 2 percent to 4 percent, less than its February projection of 5 percent to 9 percent.

Rogers cited slowing advertising sales at its media business, which includes television, radio and magazines such as Maclean’s and Canadian Business. The unit accounts for about 13 percent of sales. The company also has seen declines in the wireless business, with the average monthly bill dropping 2.3 percent last quarter.

“We don’t see anything today that would say we’re in a customer recovery,” Chief Executive Officer Nadir Mohamed said on a conference call with reporters.

Average monthly revenue per user, a measure of how much mobile-phone customers are spending on calls and data, fell C$1.47 to C$63.09 in the quarter ended June 30. Customers curbed long-distance calling and travel amid the slowdown, Rogers said. Total sales rose 3.1 percent to C$2.89 billion ($2.67 billion).

A 3 percent sales gain this year, the midpoint of the company’s forecast range, would mean C$11.7 billion in revenue. The company reported 2008 sales of C$11.3 billion.

Rogers, which also provides cable-television and home-phone services, fell C$1.53 to C$29.45 today on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the biggest drop since March 2.

Second-Quarter Results

Second-quarter net income advanced to C$374 million, or 59 cents a share, from C$301 million, or 47 cents, a year earlier. Profit, excluding some costs, rose to 65 cents a share, Rogers said today in a statement. That exceeded the average estimate of 56 cents by 16 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Rogers is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in Canada, and the introduction of the newest iPhone 3Gs and price cuts to the current model helped the carrier win subscribers amid the economic slump. Rogers added 148,000 wireless subscribers in the quarter, better than the 110,200 predicted by Greg MacDonald, an analyst at National Bank Financial in Toronto.

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

Last Updated: July 28, 2009 16:22 EDT