Eircom proves broadband is helping to slow its revenue decline – appoints new CFO and CIO

18 May 2015

Eircom's investment in broadband is paying off for the company

Eircom’s investment in next generation infrastructure is paying off and the company has reported a lower rate of revenue decline to €311m – down 1pc – for the third quarter. It has also appointed a new CFO and CIO.

The incumbent operator reported lower operating costs, down 6pc to €191m, and a 17pc drop in pay costs. This has led to a credit rating upgrade by Fitch.

Eircom reported EBITDA of €120m, up 8pc on last year.

The company reported it now has 766,000 total broadband connections, up 9pc year-on-year, and including 18,000 broadband connections in the third quarter.

The company said that its fibre network now passes 1.2m homes, more than 50pc of the company’s countrywide customer base.

Uptake of the company’s fibre broadband services is accelerating and the company now has 242,000 paying fibre customers, up 40,000.

A very interesting snippet was that 26pc of fibre customers have also opted for Eircom’s TV services.

On the mobile front Eircom said that it has more than 250,000 4G customers. Post-paid customers grew by 9,000 during the quarter.

The operator’s first mover advantage in terms of quad-play services – TV, phone, broadband and mobile – is paying dividends in the shape of 1.85m revenue generating units and 22pc of customers now have TV and mobile bundles.

Eircom also appointed Huib Costermans as chief financial offier and Erik Slooten as CIO. Costermans is a seasoned telecoms executive with deep financial knowledge of the sector, having previously worked as CFO at KPN’s wholesale and operations groups and E-Plus in Germany. Slooten joins from T-Mobile in the Czech Republic where he was regional vice president for processes and systems. Prior to that he was CIO of GTS and Vivacom.

Eircom is reaching an inflection point

“The financial performance of the group in the third quarter is highly encouraging – the business is nearing an inflection point with fixed-line revenues flattening year-on-year and mobile performance strengthening. EBITDA for the first nine months of the year was €346 million, which is in line with management expectations,” Eircom CEO Richard Moat said.

“With revenues stabilising and continued focus on cost control, the group is firmly on track to achieve its financial targets for the year.

“Leveraging our unique quad-play capability, we continue to offer customers the most compelling bundles in the market at competitive prices. We now have 22pc of our consumer base on TV/mobile bundles. The rollout of our NGA network continues at pace. Our network has now passed 1.2 million homes and businesses, representing more than 50pc of all premises in Ireland.

“The rollout of fibre to the home (FTTH) technology that will deliver the fastest broadband in the country with speeds of up to 1Gbps is also underway and will be available commercially from the end of the summer,” Moat said.

“Our multi-year network investment programme and ensuing fibre footprint provide the foundations to sustain our position as the leading Irish telecommunications provider in the digital economy.”

Fibre image via Shutterstock

 

 

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com