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THIS YEAR’S VIOLENT winter storms cost eircom €10 million in one-off network repair costs, the telecoms operator said today.
The group reported a five per cent drop in revenues for the first quarter of the year to €315 million, which it blamed on the repair costs.
Profit before deductions was stable at €119 million for the first three months of the year, with the company again blaming the poor winter weather for the lack of growth.
Job cuts
Employee numbers at the former semi-state giant continue to drop in line with a cost cutting plan. Just over 1,700 workers left the group since the start of 2013, with a further 200 set to exit before the end of this year.
Operating costs have come down by €100 million, while the telecoms operator was forced to make a provision of €7 million to pay a fine threatened by the regulator for failing to fix faulty phone lines.
Flotation on the cards
The company also indicated that it is still poised to go ahead with its planned floatation on the stock exchange, which would be its third listing in fifteen years.
The group chief financial officer Richard Moat said: “In conjunction with our advisors, we are now exploring a number of strategic options with a view to further strengthening the financial position of the company.”
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were appointed to advise on listing options last month.
Eircom also said that it has successfully rolled out 4G super-fast mobile internet to 50 per cent of customers, and has increased its bill pay user base to 39 per cent from 31 per cent last year.
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The most useless company I have ever come across. My parents live in Kilbrittain in co Cork and they were having problems with their broadband. I got onto Sky (their provider) who got Eircom to call me. Long story short, it turns out that the reason that their broadband is so shite is because the 500+ people of Kilbrittain are being served by a 40MB line. Bandon has eFibre so people in there can get up to 80MB into their house yet the 500+ people in the village of Kilbrittain are being served by less than half that into the entire village. It will take about 3 years to upgrade if their historical implementation of broadband is anything to go by. I wouldn’t mind but the infrastructure is there so all that has to be done is for Eircom to push a few buttons and give a decent service to people in the rural community.
This must be happening up and sown the country where the rural areas are being left in the dark while Eircom just take care of the towns. I would urge people to ask Eircom as to what speed the line is into their local exchange if they are getting a crap service.
So sky sold them a product that they couldn’t deliver? Nice
No Ciaran, Sky sold them a product that Eircom can’t deliver. Sky buy their broadband wholesale off Eircom as Eircom own the infrastructure. Sky have been nothing but helpful over the last few months. They have got engineers out, tested lines and troubleshooted everything until eventually we got down to the heart of the problem. Getting through to Sky takes about 30 seconds whereas ringing Eircom is a complete disaster as anyone who has dealt with them will tell you.
The problem here is not with Sky but with Eircom. Sky sold them a product based on the fact that their line will support a 7MB service from the exchange. The fact that the exchange is only served by a 40MB line is down to Eircom. I mean 40MB for 500+ people, that’s Third World broadband. Maybe Rabbite and Quinn will come down and explain how they are going to provide 100MB broadband to the local school when the line is limited to only 40MB!
Actually, Eirgrid own the infrastructure, not Eircom.
No Brian, if they are not getting the speeds that Sky sold, then it’s Skys fault.
By the way, 40MB is enough to serve a town like Kilbrittan, are you sure it’s not 40Mb?
Barry I’m not too sure what Eirgrid have to do with telephone lines.
Ciaran, it’s Eircoms fault. Our line is capable of 7MB/s so that is what it is sold on . We can get that on the rare occasion but by and large it yo-yo’s between 150k-5MB/s. The engineer from Eircom that I talked too told me that the line into the exchange from Bandon is 40 MB/s and that he would have thought that it would have been at least 4 times that. If we had a decent line from the exchange in the village into Bandon then we would get better and more stable speeds I am told .
But its skys product Brian. They sold it and they would be fully aware of any back haul issues that exist.
Ciaran, Eircom don’t tell Sky what’s going on. I have been just talking to Sky and they didn’t know about this issue. They keep pushing Eircom for information but as usual Eircom are useless at giving it out. If Sky are selling a product in good faith but their supplier lets them down then it is the suppliers fault. Again, if Eircom gave a proper 21st century service to Kilbrittain then there would be no problems. Instead they will go after urban areas and claim that they reach 80-90% of the population with broadband. Fine if you live in a city or large town but tough shit if you live in a rural area.
I’m waiting over a month for Eircom to connect me. I live in Limerick City. They can’t connect because there is ivy on the telephone pole outside my house. Two engineers have been out. Neither figured out that the ivy comes off.
The ivy engineer won’t be available for a few more months
If the Eircom service was free it would still be a waste of free.
Maybe that not due to storms, but their terrible customer service and lack of communication?
I’ve been with UPC for 8 years, and some of them were BAD, but dear god I switched to Eircom recently and I actually can’t believe how spoiled with UPC I was…
Hurry up installing E fibre !
Arriving in March 14 i thought Bunter?
As soon as im out of contract with eircom im gone. Eircom are blaming weather and other causes for their fall in profit but they wont look at how they directly treat customers. For example my latest bill came in at €180. My bill is a broadband only €40 a month contract… I pay via internet banking every month and when I called to query this extra charge they said it was down to a direct debit issue. I dont have direct debits on my account. No one in eircom will tell me what im being billed for or return my call.. this is exactly why they are loosing profits. Customers cant leave quick enough.
They are a joke! I live in Dublin’s city centre my apt and my building must be the only one not connected to the UPC network. The phone line was not active in the apt so the only ppl I could go to was Eircom! I was meant to be on a rate of €35 euro for 6 months no connection fee etc! My 1st bill was €180 they were charging for a connection fee and engineer call out fee for setting up my broadband! 1st off connection fee was free and no one came to set up my broadband I did it myself and 3rd they were charging me €45 euro not €35! After a very long call to many different depts I got everything sorted! Next month almost the same again €120 bill that’s meant to be €35 again extra fees been charge that were noting to so with me. It wasn’t until the 4th month that I started to get the correct bill! My Contract is up in July I can’t wait to get rid of them!
I get 120Mb (I think, but definitely over 100) broadband, plus free national calls and free calls to a load of other countries from UPC for €43 p/m. Good service they offer.
Was with eircom – only had one fault that got handled quickly. Couldn’t complain about any aspect of their response. Moved to UPC only because of better broadband speeds. Credit where it’s due.
Try report a fault when you’re not an eircom customer…eircom won’t talk to you to arrange a time, has to be done through the provider. And if the engineer needs directions…good luck!
I think their customer service is to blame – they also seem to have put their sales staff through some aggressive sales technique training – I have been cold called at least 5 times by them and they are so rude & aggressive – plus their advice is shite – ended up on a plan that cost me way more each month – they did eventually refund the difference but it took 6 months in an equally poor complaints process…..
Why do people still have phone lines in this day and age?
If I could get mobile reception at home I’d throw out the landline in the morning, we had no landline for over 4 weeks after the storm, eventually when an Eircom engineer called to the area we were informed that he was only fixing Eircom customers faults and as I was with Vodafone we’d have to wait longer even though Vodafone are paying Eircom to use their network, anyway the engineer fecked up and wired an Eircom neighbour into my house no. So he had to come back and fix mine after all …
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