Irish telecoms provider Eircom has restated its commitment to its fixed line network, saying there is ‘no end in sight’ for the platform, and indicating that it is prepared to ‘aggressively’ pitch for rural household fibre contracts. The Irish Independent quotes Jon Florsheim, the consumer division’s managing director, as saying: ‘Clearly, consumer habits are changing rapidly but 95% of our customers have a fixed line phone and the pattern is not changing … We know that for many of our customers, that is their only means of communication.’ The operator has invested EUR1 billion (USD1.16 billion) on the deployment of fibre broadband since 2012 and has EUR500 million left to spend by mid-2016; a large portion of this is intended for the installation of fibre infrastructure to rural premises, pending government approval and financial support. Florsheim added: ‘The more the government puts in, the better. It does not make economic sense for us to do this without government support.’
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, at 30 September 2014 Eircom accounted for 37.8% of the Irish fixed broadband market, placing it in pole position, ahead of its chief rivals UPC (29.7%) and Vodafone (17.2%).