First quarter results see 2% revenue growth for eir

Results in line with expectations as telco claims 93% broadband coverage

Trade

Oliver Loomes, eir

First quarter results for eir revealed a 2% growth in revenue to €311 million, in line with expectations compared to the same period in 2023.

The telco increased its broadband base by 3% year-on-year to 873,000 customers, and its postpay mobile customers increased 120,000 to 1,131,000 customers. Multi-play bundling accounted for 52% of eir fixed households, up 6 percentage points year-on-year.

Between its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) fibre network has passed 1.2 million premises across Ireland, and 873,000 fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) subscription, eir claimed that between both networks it could offer broadband connectivity to 93% of premises in Ireland.

More than half of customers (52%) were triple (broadband, phone and mobile) or quad-play (broadband, phone, mobile, TV) bundles, up 6 percentage points.

In mobile, eir claimed a total increase in customers of 8% to 1.451 million. The vast majority of these (1.131 million) were postpay customers.

Subscriber to the eir TV service grew 21% to 106,000.

Oliver Loomes, eir CEO, (pictured) said: “We have started the year on a strong note with eir delivering a solid first quarter which is a direct result of our commitment to investing in and expanding Ireland’s leading fibre and mobile networks. Our customer base has grown by 148,000, driven by the enhanced quality and expansion of our 5G mobile and fibre broadband networks. This growth is supported by our capital investment of over €1 billion since 2018.

“Eir continues to invest €250 million per annum, ensuring that Ireland is equipped with world-class communications infrastructure. Ongoing investment in communications infrastructure  is crucial for driving Ireland’s economic expansion, sparking innovation, and maintaining our competitive edge on the global stage.

“Through our investment to build Ireland’s largest high speed broadband network, eir is playing a critical role in forging an inclusive and digitally connected Ireland. To date, over 1.2 million homes and businesses, or approximately 3 million people, can now connect to eir’s state-of-the-art fibre-to-the-home broadband. Our 5G network expansion now encompasses more than 600 villages, towns and cities, offering ultrafast data speeds that are setting new benchmarks for connectivity across the nation.

“We are also committing a renewed focus on improving customer care, and this year will be investing a further €8 million to enhance our customer care systems. This investment will streamline our back-end operations, enabling our agents to respond to calls more effectively and resolve issues more efficiently. eir’s consistent focus on care transformation is proving to be successful… A dynamic and robust telecommunications infrastructure network remains essential for transforming Ireland into a technologically advanced and interconnected society, and we are fully committed to playing our part in connecting Ireland to be one of the most technologically sophisticated countries in the world.”

Stephen Tighe, eir CFO, added: “Our performance in the first quarter of 2024 was in line with expectations. We saw growth across the eir fibre broadband base and in total mobile customers, with a further increase seen in the multi-play bundling of eir fixed households. Our solid commercial momentum is now delivering organic revenue growth on a consistent basis.

“We have continued rolling out our fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and 5G technologies as part of our €1 billion capital investment programme. Both our fibre rollout and our 5G networks continue to expand and continue at pace.”

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