Ireland’s eir has reported ‘consistent, solid results in line with expectations’ for the nine months ended 31 March 2020 (9M20), recording a total turnover (excluding intracompany revenue) of EUR920 million (USD1.01 billion), down from EUR937 million in the corresponding period a year earlier. Within the total, fixed line services and other revenue was reported at EUR690 million, down from EUR709 million in 9M19, while mobile services revenue contributed EUR257 million (9M19: EUR254 million). According to eir, the decline in fixed revenue was mainly driven by ‘a reduction in traditional access base, voice traffic, and managed services revenues, as well as by the impact of wholesale regulatory pricing, partly offset by growth in broadband and data services revenue’. In the mobile sector, meanwhile, the marginal year-on-year increase was attributed to a rise in post-paid and roaming revenues, partly offset by lower pre-paid and mobile broadband turnover. Further, eir reported adjusted EBITDA of EUR444 million for the nine-month period under review, with this figure representing a 5% year-on-year increase, which it said had been driven by continued operating cost savings.
In operational terms, eir’s fixed broadband subscriber base increased by 1% on annualised basis to 954,000 as of 31 March 2020, of which 453,000 were retail subscribers (down from 464,000 a year earlier) and 501,000 were wholesale accesses. Of the overall total, eir said that 748,000 broadband connections were fibre-based at end-March 2020, up 9% y-o-y. In terms of its fibre rollout, meanwhile, eir confirmed that 501,000 premises were now within its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network footprint, up from 337,000 at end-March 2019, while 1.9 million premises in total now have access to a fibre-based service.
In the mobile sector, eir had 1.171 million subscribers on its books as of 31 March 2020, up from 1.032 million a year earlier. Of that figure the lion’s share – 760,000 – were post-paid subscribers, up 35% y-o-y (530,000), with growth said to have been driven by the October 2019 launch of the company’s MVNO sub-brand GoMo, which offers a single SIM-only post-paid plan. With regards to its mobile infrastructure, eir confirmed that its in-deployment 5G network rollout covered ‘over 20 towns and cities’ at the end of the reporting period, blanketing more than 28% of the population. 4G coverage, meanwhile, stood at 98% (population) and 94% (territory) respectively.