Eir revenue falls 1% in first quarter but cost cutting pays off

Revenue at Eir fell 1 per cent in the first quarter of its financial year, dipping to €312 million as growth in its mobile and television income was offset by falling access, managed services, and operator services revenues.

But the company said earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation rose 11 per cent year on year to €138 million as the company cuts its costs and saw more people sign up to its high speed broadband services.

The results, covering the three-month period to September 30th, were broadly in line with Eir’s expectations, with growth also seen in the company’s postpay mobile subscriber base, TV services, sport and product bundling.

Eir said operating costs fell 12 per cent, or €13 million, to €108 million in the period.

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The company reiterated its plans to invest €1 billion over the next five years in its national fibre to the home network and in upgrading its mobile network to boost coverage and capacity ahead of the 5G rollout in the future.

Rural rollout

It has already passed 1.8 million premises with its high-speed fibre broadband, including 228,000 premises in its rural rollout. Eir said it now passes a total of 78 per cent of premises with its fibre technology, and has 651,000 fibre broadband connections. Eir now has a total of 925,000 broadband customers, rising 2 per cent or 22,000 year on year.

Its television customer base expanded 5 per cent year on year, with 78,000 eir Vision customers, while Eir Sport has 270,000 users across all platforms. In total, Eir has more than one million mobile customers, with more than half now on postpay plans.

"We have begun a new financial year with another set of strong financial and operational results," said Eir chief executive Carolan Lennon. "Our first quarter performance was underpinned by solid growth momentum coupled with a continued increase in operational efficiency.

“We were pleased to deliver Ebitda growth of 11 per cent, a reduction in operational costs of 12 per cent, and an increase in cash generation of €44 million year on year.

“These results clearly demonstrate how Eir is continuing on its transformational journey to become a leaner, more agile operation, with a focus on investment in infrastructure and people.”