Eir sees earnings increase by €4m following price hikes

Eir increased prices by 8% starting in April with annual prices each April expected going forward. 

Telecoms company Eir has seen earnings increase by €4m in its latest quarterly financial update following a raft of price increases introduced in April.

Starting from April this year, Eir announced that it would be increasing the monthly prices of its services every year going forward to “combat significant inflation costs” across its operations. The annual increase is based on the Consumer Price Index published in the previous January, plus an additional 3%.

Prices this year went up by 8% this year adding at least €5.21 a month to its standard broadband and phone plans and €2.40 to its standalone mobile bill pay plan.

According to the company’s latest financial update for the months April to June, revenue at the company rose by €22m, or 7%, to €318m.

Its earnings before deductions increased by €4m, or 3%, to €145m. Operating costs increased by 2% to €99m.

The company’s cash on its balance sheet stood at €212m.

Stephen Tighe, chief financial officer of Eir, said their performance has been “in line with expectations” after seeing growth across the eir fibre broadband base and in total mobile customers, including the eir post-pay mobile base.

“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,” he said.

Oliver Loomes, chief executive of CEO, said the company’s fibre to the home rollout continues and it remains on track to deliver high-speed broadband to 1.9 million premises or 84% of homes and businesses in Ireland by 2026.

The company has seen a 28% drop in fixed line complaints and a 20% drop in mobile complaints to the communications regulator since the last quarterly report.

The company said that it currently has 925,000 broadband customers - down 1% compared to the same period last year. However, the total eir fibre customers increased by 2% year-on-year to 852,000 

The company has nearly 1.37 million mobile customers, up 107,000 compared to last year. The Eir TV service has 91,000 customers an increase of 11,000 year-on-year.