Eir has announced results for the second quarter and six months ended 31 December 2016. Underlying revenue for the quarter was €336 million, excluding mobile termination rates and foreign exchange movements, and increased by €8 million, up 2% year-on-year. Reported revenue for the quarter of €330 million was stable compared to the corresponding prior year quarter.
On a year-to-date basis, underlying revenue of €666 million increased by 2% or €13 million. Reported revenue of €657 million increased by 1% or €4 million compared to the prior year period.
Operating costs for the quarter ended 31 December 2016 were €130 million, a reduction of 2% compared with the same quarter in 2015 and reduced by 3% or €8 million on a year to date basis to €256 million.
In the fixed line segment, reported revenue for the quarter ended 31 December 2016 was €250 million, a 2% increase when compared to the corresponding prior year period. The year to date figure of €499 million, also increased by 2% compared to the prior year. Fixed line reported revenue for the quarter and six months to 31 December 2016, of €109 million and €218 million, increased by €4 million and €8 million respectively.
The total group broadband customer base was 880,000 at 31 December 2016, growing by 13,000 in the quarter and 26,000 for the six months ended 31 December 2016. Wholesale broadband connections increased by 12,000 during the quarter and 30,000 for the six months ended 31 December 2016, bringing the total wholesale broadband lines to 436,000 lines at the end of December 2016. The retail broadband base increased by 1,000 in the quarter to a total of 444,000 customers.
Some 500,000 customers were using eir’s fibre-based broadband service at the end of December, representing growth of 36,000 customers during the quarter and 71,000 since June 2016. A total of 57% of eir broadband customers are connected to its fibre network, which represents a 31% penetration of fibre premises passed. Fixed line net access losses for the quarter and six months ended 31 December 2016 were 10,000 and 23,000 respectively, an improvement when compared to 27,000 net losses for the six months ended 31 December 2015.
Mobile
In the mobile segment, reported mobile revenue was €88 million for the quarter, a decrease of €6 million when compared to the prior year. On a year-to-date basis, reported mobile revenue of €176 million decreased €9 million or 5% compared to the prior year period. Adjusting for the impact of MTR regulatory price changes, underlying mobile revenue of €184 million for the half year decreased by 1%, primarily due to increased bundling and promotional activity.
The mobile customer base increased by 8,000 in the quarter and 15,000 for the six months ended 31 December 2016 to a total of 1,074,000 customers.
Richard Moat, CEO, eir, said: “Strong business momentum continues with underlying revenue and EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] growth for the quarter of 2% and 4% respectively… We remain focused on network investment, bundling and convergence, with all these initiatives underpinning our successful transformation from a telephony to a media company… Our vision for our customers is a converged future, providing seamless access to fixed and mobile services. This will be brought to life this year with the launch of new innovative products such as voice over broadband, voice over Wi-Fi and voice over LTE services.
Supporting this vision is an on-going commitment to strategic investment that is unrivalled in Ireland. Our rural 300,000 fibre rollout programme is well underway, and we are on track to pass 1.9m premises by the end of 2018. Communities such as Belclare, Cornamona, Inverin and Turloughmore in Co Galway, as well as Dunleer Co Louth are able to access high speed broadband with a best in class broadband service offering speeds up to 1Gb/s. This is on par with the fastest broadband speeds available anywhere in the world and demonstrates eir’s commitment to foster economic development across rural Ireland.
Finally, 4G mobile data coverage has now reached 95% of the population, three months ahead of schedule. This improved connectivity has also delivered an increase in large scale business customers as we expand our offerings to this segment.”
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