A vehicle with the Eir logo in Dublin. Image: William Murphy/Flickr.com (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Growth in Eir data services and bundling led the revenue rise, which was offset by a reduction in traditional access, traffic, content and mobile revenue.
Eir, one of Ireland’s biggest telecom companies, has reported a first-quarter rise in revenue even though there has been a slight decrease in its broadband customers
In its latest earnings report published today (19 May), Eir said that the “solid” results are in line with expectations, with revenue now standing at €303m – up 2pc over the same period last year.
However, the rise in revenue was accompanied by a sharp rise in operating costs, which are up 10pc to €100m.
Eir said that driving the revenue increase was growth in data services and bundling, National Broadband Plan access, and the addition of revenues from Evros which it acquired in January last year.
This was partly offset by a reduction in traditional access, traffic, content and mobile revenues.
Even though broadband customers were down 1pc, spurred by a 3pc drop in retail customers, Eir’s fibre broadband connections shot up by 3pc to 831,000, which now represents 87pc of the company’s total broadband base.
Last month, Eir said that more than 800,000 homes and businesses across Ireland now have access to its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, part of a €1bn five-year capital investment programme launched in 2018.
The group’s mobile base also rose, according to today’s earnings report, now standing at 1.23m customers – a 4pc increase year on year. Postpay subscribers shot up by 9pc and now represent 74pc of the Eir mobile base.
Stephen Tighe, Eir CFO, said that the company’s performance was in line with expectations and that both the fibre and 5G roll-out continue to expand at pace.
“At Eir, we have also invested heavily in our customer care service offering, opening a new care hub in Waterford while expanding our recruitment drive across our other hubs in Sligo, Cork and Limerick,” he said.
“Looking forward, Eir is committed to delivering strong, consistent results which will showcase further growth across our customer bases, with continued business development and optimisation, with strong cash generation and most importantly, the continuation of Eir’s capital investment programme on our fibre and mobile networks to drive further growth.”
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
A vehicle with the Eir logo in Dublin. Image: William Murphy/Flickr.com (CC BY-SA 2.0)
