A van with the Eir logo in 2015. Image: William Murphy (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The telecoms company has reported growth in its customer base, while a stronger fourth quarter helped stabilise its 2022 revenue.
Eir has reported a marginal increase in revenue for 2022, though its earnings for the year took a hit.
In its latest earnings report, the telecoms company reported total revenue of €1.244bn last year, an increase of only €1m compared to 2021.
The company reached stable revenue for the year thanks to a solid fourth quarter ending 31 December 2022, which saw increases in revenue, profits and reduced operating costs.
Eir’s revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 was €344m, an increase of €17m compared to the same period in 2021. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for this quarter went up by 13pc.
However, Eir’s earnings for the full year was €606m, down by €14m compared to 2021, while its annual operating costs grew by 2pc to €388m. The telecoms company said the results for 2022 were in line with expectations.
In a second quarter earnings report for 2022, Eir said the “continued streamlining” of its cost base was “offset by additional costs” as a result of its acquisition of Irish IT services firm Evros in an €80m deal in January 2021.
Meanwhile, Eir reported steady growth across its customer bases, with more connections to its fibre broadband network and a rise in mobile customers.
The company’s total fibre base grew by 2pc last year, reaching 844,000 connections, while its postpay base saw a year-on-year growth of 10pc, rising to 982,000 customers.
By the end of 2022, more than 987,000 homes had connected to the company’s fibre-to-the-home network. This figure surpassed 1m homes in February.
Eir plans to roll out this gigabit broadband network to 1.9m premises in Ireland by the end of 2026. This will represent 84pc of homes and businesses in the country. The remaining 16pc will be covered by National Broadband Ireland.
Eir has invested more than €1bn in building the network to date and now expects to spend another €250m per year until the end of 2026 to meet its commitment.
“We are committed to continuing to invest in our people to ensure we have the best talent in place to continue building and maintaining Ireland’s largest fibre network into the future,” said Eir CEO Oliver Loomes.
“Enhanced technologies like Eir’s 5G network is now available in 530 towns and cities across Ireland and the roll out of our 5G network will continue bringing ultrafast data speeds to even more homes and businesses.”
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A van with the Eir logo in 2015. Image: William Murphy via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
