UPC Ireland has reported a 28pc increase in revenues to $95.6m for the three months to 30 June, higher than the increase of 23.1pc recorded by the total UPC Broadband Division for the same period.
Commenting on the results, CEO of UPC Ireland, Robert Dunn, said the company’s network investment here is paying off and it’s continuing to upgrade its networks across Ireland.
“There is strong growth coming from the new broadband- and telephone-enabled homes. Over 50pc of our national footprint is now broadband-enabled,” he said.
Broadband numbers increased year on year by over 33pc in the second quarter to 89,000 broadband subscribers. “During the first half of this year we also introduced two speed increases, the second increased our top broadband tier to offer 20Mbps for €40 a month with unlimited data use.”
UPC Ireland launched its phone service in April 2007 and now has 18,500 home phone subscribers, which Dunn described as “particularly encouraging”. “Almost 300,000 of our homes are now upgraded for phone as part of our product offering,” he said. UPC Ireland undercut Eircom’s line rental to €4 a month.
With regards to TV, over half a million people get their service via UPC now and over three out of every five cabled homes choose UPC as their preferred entertainment provider, said Dunn.
“Year on year, digital TV numbers grew by almost 3pc to reach over 314,000 subscribers. Overall TV numbers were down for this quarter. We attribute this to the reduced number of new builds released during this period, as well as seasonal factors.”
Dunn added that UPC Ireland would roll out video-on-demand and high-definition services during 2009.
By Sorcha Corcoran
Pictured: Robert Dunn, CEO of UPC Ireland
