Eircom recorded group revenues which were down 9 per cent to €468 million for the three-month period ended September 30th compared to a year earlier.
Announcing its first quarter results this morning, Eircom said group adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) declined by 0.6 per cent over the year to €168 million.
In the quarter to the end of September, group operating costs declined by 11 per cent as against the same quarter a year earlier to €300 million due in part to reduced labour costs.
Fixed-line revenues fell by 9 per cent to €364 million reflecting lower voice traffic and PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) volumes, and higher bundle discounts.
Eircom said fixed-Line adjusted Ebitda totalled €140 million, down 1 per cent year-on-year but €2 million higher than the preceding quarter to the end of June 2009, due to the continued impact of cost saving initiatives rolled out during the year.
The company gained an extra 8,000 DSL broadband customers in its fiscal first quarter, up from 7,000 in the preceding three-month period but down from 21,000 year-on-year.
Overall the customers had 673,000 DSL subscribers on its books at the end of September 2009, of which 482,000 were retail customers.
During the quarter under review the firm saw a 23,000 reduction in net PSTN line losses, compared with net losses of 24,000 in the preceding three-month period, and 11,000 in the same quarter a year earlier.
Eircom's chief executive Paul Donovan said the operating environment in Ireland "remains challenging from an economic, competitive and regulatory perspective."
Meteor, the company's mobile division recorded revenues before intra-company eliminations, of €119 million, down 6 per cent on the same quarter in 2009, due to lower average revenue per user (ARPU) partially offset by customer growth, particularly in mobile broadband subscribers.
The mobile division recorded Ebitda of €28 million, in line with the corresponding quarter a year earlier, but down €7 million on the preceding three-month period due to increased acquisition costs and lower revenue in the quarter.
During the quarter under review, mobile customer gains, including broadband subscribers totalled 20,000, in line the first fiscal quarter of last year but down 7,000 on the preceding three-month period to the end of June 2009.
The company had a total of 1,046,000 mobile subscribers at the end of September, up 38,000 year-on-year. Of this, 146,000 were post-paid customers, representing just 13,9 per cent of total mobile subscribers.
Average monthly blended mobile ARPU fell by 8 per cent over the year to €36.02, mainly due to the impact of new call price plans and changes in traffic mix, the company said.
