Eir has reported revenue of EUR 299 million for its FY third quarter to 31 March 2021, down 3 percent or EUR 8 million year-on-year, with growth in broadband, data services and bundling offset up lower traditional access, sport content, traffic, eir UK and mobile revenue. EBITDA was stable at EUR 154 million as Eir continued its business streamlining and cost savings programme; with operating costs down 4 percent or EUR 4 million to EUR 92 million.
Eir ended the quarter with a total of 970,000 broadband connections, up 2 percent or 16,000, with wholesale connections up by 4 percent or 21,000 and retail connections down 1 percent or 5,000. Total mobile subscribers reached 1.89 million, up by 2 percent or 18,000 from the year-earlier quarter, with post-paid customers up by 10 percent or 76,000 to 836,000, to account for 70 percent of the mobile base (up 5pp). Eir TV customers reached 81,000 at end-Q3, up by 5 percent or 4,000 year-on-year.
Eir has now passed 2.1 million premises with fibre, or 88 percent of all premises in Ireland. Of this, 820,000 premises are passed with FTTH across Ireland, up by 64 percent or 319,000 from a year earlier. Customers using ultraspeed fibre broadband services reached 810,000 at end-Q3, up 8 percent or 62,000 year-on-year. More than 84 percent of broadband base is now connected to Eir's fibre network, representing a 38 percent penetration rate of total premises passed by Eir fibre broadband.
Meanwhile, Eir has confirmed to The42.ie that all Eir Sport channels will stop broadcasting later in 2021. In statement to the sports news website, Eir said the sports channels would be "discontinued...following an in-depth review". The global pandemic and the increasing cost of broadcasting rights mean the commercial business model is no longer viable. Eir added that resources would instead be focused on its core broadband and mobile networks business.
