Telecoms company eir has today announced a slight rise in revenue and earnings for the second quarter - in line with expectations.
Eir said its second quarter revenue rose by 1% to €320m, while its EBITDA increased by 3% to €149m.
The company said its operating costs rose by 4% to €103m, with non-pay costs up by 9% due to an increase in accommodation and marketing costs and pay costs down by 2%.
It said its total fibre broadband base increased by 3% year on year to 879,000 customers, while its postpay mobile customers grew by 114,000 to 1,155,000 customers.
Eir said it had a total of 1.475 million mobile customers in the second quarter, up 8% on the same time last year.
It noted that multi-play bundling accounted for 53% of its fixed households, up 5 percentage points year on year.
A total of 1.2 million premises are now passed with Fibre to the Home (FTTH) across Ireland, up 17% or 184,000 year on year.
Eir said a total of 2.1 million premises are passed by its combined FTTH and FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) networks, or 93% of premises in Ireland.
Meanwhile, it also said it had 110,000 eir TV customers, up 20% on last year.
Oliver Loomes, the chief executive of eir, said the company has had a steady start to the year growing revenue and customer numbers in a solid second quarter as a direct result of its commitment to investing in and expanding Ireland's leading fibre and mobile networks.
"Our customer base has grown by 135,000 in fibre and mobile services over the past year, driven by the improved quality and reach of our 5G and fibre broadband networks. This growth reflects a capital investment of over €1.2 billion since 2018," the CEO said.
He also noted that the company maintained an average call wait time of under two minutes for over a year, underscoring its commitment to a "prompt and efficient customer service".
"Eir continues to invest €250m per annum to ensure Ireland is equipped with world-class communications infrastructure to drive economic expansion, foster innovation and maintain our competitive edge on the global stage," Oliver Loomes said.
"Through our investment to build Ireland's largest high speed broadband network, eir is playing a critical role in forging an inclusive, digitally-connected Ireland," he said.
He said that over 1.2 million homes and businesses, or approximately 3 million people, can connect to eir's fibre-to-the-home broadband.
"By the end of 2026, we expect to reach 1.9 million premises with our Gigabit broadband network, that is 84% of homes and businesses across Ireland," he said.
"Our 5G network has grown to encompass more than 600 villages, towns and cities offering ultrafast data speeds that set new benchmarks for connectivity across the nation," he added.
