Eircom results for the three months to the end of December show that its revenues and earnings are down.
The company has 1,052,000 mobile customers, up slightly, but revenue fell by 7.5% due mainly to lower prices. In the three months to December, Eircom lost a further 20,000 landline customers and gained 3,000 broadband customers.
In the three month period, revenue fell 6% from a year earlier to €438m, while earnings fell by 3% to €154m.
Eircom says there is a 'significant risk' that it could breach its financial covenants with its lenders within the next three or six months, and the directors are due to talk to the group's lenders shortly about the overall financial position of the group.
Its statement says the economic environment is unlikely to improve in the near term and continued progress on cutting costs is necessary for competitiveness. Eircom says it expects to reach agreement with unions later this week on cost savings.
The general secretary of the Communications Workers Union Steve Fitzpatrick said the union had received proposals from the company, which would be considered by yhe CWU executive later this week.
