Revenues at the Irish arm of cable TV and telecoms provider UPC for the first quarter of 2009 grew from €58.9m last year to €61.1m. The company now has 110,000 broadband customers and is investing €90m in a new 120Mbps service.
UPC’s parent company Liberty Global reported revenues of US$2.58bn, up 4pc year-on-year, which included over 800,000 organic digital video, voice and broadband subscriptions during Q1 2009.
On the ground in Ireland, UPC marked the beginning of its year with over 540,000 customers, and now claims over one in every three Irish homes as subscribers.
“We are investing over €90m in our network this year alone to develop and extend more services across our national footprint,” said UPC Ireland chief executive, Robert Dunn (pictured).
“Digital TV subscribers reached a total of 319,900, up by over 1pc during this period, with well over 50pc of all new digital customers subscribing to our digital plus product.
“UPC continues to invest strongly in providing a high-quality digital TV service, and we look forward to the introduction of our high-definition (HD) TV service over the coming months,” Dunn said.
UPC broadband numbers continued to increase during the quarter to end at over 111,000 customers, reflecting a 21pc take-up on the 527,400 broadband-enabled homes.
In terms of telephone services, UPC grew its customer base to 34,800, an increase of over 25pc when compared with the previous quarter.
“Customers are starting to understand the benefits of phonecalls with UPC, which allow them to cut out their monthly line rental bill of €25.47 with Eircom. There are now 418,700 homes that can receive a telephone service from UPC,” Dunn explained.
“These results demonstrate the strong competitive advantage this investment programme is delivering to the business in the marketplace.
“Out of a total of 1.5 million households, UPC’s network passes over 58pc, with more than one in every three homes in Ireland subscribing to UPC.
“Since establishing in Ireland, UPC has a local workforce of 800 people, and is supported by in excess of 1,000 contractors throughout Ireland in its daily operations.
“Looking ahead, we will be launching our HDTV service and are preparing the network to introduce faster broadband speeds of up to 120Mbps through our Fibre Power programme,” Dunn concluded.
By John Kennedy
Pictured: UPC Ireland chief executive, Robert Dunn
