MONTREAL — BCE Inc. says it earned a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of $867 million, up from $814 million a year ago.

The telecommunications and media company says the profit amounted to 96 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 90 cents per share a year ago.

Operating revenue totalled $5.98 billion, up from $5.88 billion.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned $820 million or 91 cents per share in its most recent quarter, down from an adjusted profit of $861 million or 96 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 92 cents per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

During the quarter, BCE added 204,067 net new wireless customers including 127,172 postpaid customers and 76,895 prepaid clients.

Investment firm Canaccord Genuity had estimated the company would add 120,000 net postpaid subscribers during the quarter, a decline from last year due to generally slower subscriber growth and fewer additions from a major federal contract.

RBC Capital Markets estimated 110,000 net additions to its postpaid subscriber base, plus 50,000 net additions to its prepaid wireless services.

Analysts have been watching to see how Bell would be affected by a switch in pricing strategy, which Rogers kicked off in late June when it was the first of Canada's three national carriers to announce data plans without overage fees.

Toronto-based Rogers said last week that a million of its customers had adopted its unlimited data plans since they were introduced, about three times more than expected.

But Rogers also missed analyst estimates for third-quarter adjusted earnings per share and announced lower revenue expectations for 2019.

BNN Bloomberg is a division of Bell Media, which is owned by BCE.