After suffering a $138 million loss in the fourth quarter, Canada’s biggest cable company Rogers Communications is hoping to claw its way back into profit by increasing the cost of residential cable and internet services.

Broadband internet rates will increase by 3% to 9%, effective on March 1. Several pay-TV packages will also jump in price, with the cost of basic cable climbing about 5% to $29.99 per month.

The price increases are necessary to “ensure continued investment in our network and programming” and to address “increased costs like those from programming providers,” according to Rogers spokeswoman, Nancy Cottenden.

Over the past year, Rogers’ customer additions have slumped. Even the company’s fast-growing digital phone service, which brought in 65,000 users in the fourth quarter of 2007, added just 40,000 in the final three months of 2008. Analysts attribute this to a weakening economy (particularly in Ontario) as well as aggressive price cuts by incumbent telecom operators like Bell and Telus.

It remains to be seen whether price increases will be enough to push Rogers out of the red, or if it will simply cause more subscribers to jump ship, further hurting the company’s bottom line.