Eircom Q3 revenues up 5pc to €515m


28 May 2008

Incumbent operator Eircom this morning reported a 5pc increase in third-quarter revenues to €515m and an 11pc increase in group EBITDA of €175m. The company is also spearheading a massive 3G rollout after hooking a deal with equipment vendor Ericsson.

The company’s chief executive Rex Comb attributed the results to robust performance at the company’s fixed-line and Meteor mobile divisions.

Meteor’s subscriber numbers grew by 13,000 to 975,000 at the end of March, up 17pc year-on-year.

Eircom said it netted an additional 37,000 new DSL customers during the quarter as a result of increased availability countrywide, as well as speed upgrades.

Year-on-year this marks a 37pc increase, bringing total customer numbers to 571,000. Retail DSL subscribers at the end of March amounted to 410,000.

The company said its restructuring programme was well underway with the headcount at its fixed-line business falling by 476 since July last year.

Total fixed-line revenues stood at €413m for the quarter, up 1pc on a year earlier, while Meteor revenues were up 23pc to €120m.

At the end of March, Eircom said it had €281m in the bank after paying out €134m to cover debt and interest.

For the nine months of the financial year so far, Eircom revenues stood at €1.54bn, up 5pc, while EBIDTA reached €521m for the year so far, up 9pc.

Meteor revenues for the nine months stood at €358m, up 28pc, while fixed-line revenues were €1.2bn, up 1pc on the year.

Capital expenditure at Eircom during the nine months stood at €229m on increased fixed and mobile network capacity.

“Eircom group continues to perform strongly and once again we deliver a solid set of results for this period, both in the mobile and fixed-line segments,” said Comb.

Comb also said the company is continuing to invest in rolling out 3G network capacity after receiving the last available licence from ComReg last year.

“Meteor has signed a contract with Ericsson to provide the most advanced 3G mobile broadband network in Ireland,” Comb explained.

“This move will provide exciting new services such as social networking, music downloads and video content. Meteor has already achieved 10pc 3G network coverage, and is on target to reach 33pc coverage by the end of September covering the Dublin and Cork areas,” Comb explained.

By John Kennedy