Despite falling revenues, Eircom this morning revealed it has expanded its fibre rollout plan from 1m homes to 1.2m homes – or 60pc of homes and businesses in Ireland.
The company this morning reported that revenues in the second quarter fell 6pc year-on-year to €361m, down €23m.
However, the company did show progress in reducing operating costs by 7pc to €157m.
EBITDA decreased by €10m to €119m for the quarter, down 8pc on the same period a year earlier.
Eircom’s retail customer base stood at 2,050,000 on 31 December 2012 and includes 1,086,000 mobile customers. The total customer base, including wholesale customers, is 2,442,000 at 31 December 2012.
In the broadband market, Eircom gained 2,000 retail broadband customers for the quarter through 31 December 2012, resulting in 461,000 customers, a 1pc improvement on its customer base since 30 September 2012.
This is the first quarter of growth in broadband customers for the past seven quarters. The PSTN customer base fell to 964,000, a reduction of 15,000 customers in the quarter, which slowed from 19,000 losses in the previous quarter.
In the mobile segment, the group’s customers grew by 1pc in the quarter to 1,086,000 through the end of December.
“The business continues to perform in line with expectations as we make progress to stem our customer losses, revenue decline and profitability erosion,” CEO Herb Hribar said.
“We are fully committed to our investment strategy to construct a network for the nation that supports the seamless delivery of new and innovative products and services for consumers, small businesses and large enterprises across fixed and mobile platforms.”
Eircom expands fibre broadband rollout plans
Hribar said the incumbent is expanding the reach of Eircom’s fibre network in what he said will now be Ireland’s largest fibre network. The original plan catered for 1m homes and the expanded network will now incorporate 1.2m homes and businesses.
“This incorporates a further additional 78 communities throughout the country and when completed, will provide high-speed broadband connections to 60pc of homes and businesses in Ireland.
“The fibre broadband network has already passed more than 230,000 premises and high-speed broadband services will launch later this spring. We will also trial high-speed 4G data services in the coming months and anticipate a commercial offering this summer,” Hribar said.
