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    Thursday, May 28, 2009

    Eircom sees profit plunge



    Eircom's third quarter results show an operating profit of EUR69 million, down 27 percent from last year's EUR95 million.

    Meanwhile, revenue fell 5 percent to EUR488 million. The company lost 22,000 telephone customers in the quarter, but garnered an extra 19,000 broadband subscribers.

    On the plus side, profits at Eircom subsidiary Meteor jumped 17 percent to EUR35 million; however revenue at the mobile operator slipped 2 percent to EUR117 million.

    In line with the experiences of rival mobile operators Vodafone and O2, Meteor's average monthly revenue per user fell 6 percent to EUR37.52 over a year.

    Given that Three have been effectively handed the Governments Broadband Rollout contract this may hit Eircom hard in both the fixed line ADSL market and "Mobile Broadband" ala Midband market with Meteor's "Broadband" packages.

    Once Three begin rolling out their Midband packages across all of Ireland and they pump up advertising on it it will be interesting to see how this will hit Eircom's profit margins even further.

    We all think eircom sucks but compared to Three I'd rather see the people of Ireland receive a ADSL Broadband service instead of a Three Midband (Mobile Broadband) service which is frankly not suitable for on-line gaming, VoIP etc.

    Some content Taken from enn.ie

    Tuesday, May 26, 2009

    Electricity company to buy Eircom?


    Taken from ENN.IE
    The Irish Independent says that Bahrain-based private equity firm Arcapita, which owns electricity company Viridian, has emerged as a potential buyer for Eircom. The other private equity group involved in discussions that could lead to a sale of the beleaguered telecoms firm is CVC Capital Partners, which is housed in Luxembourg. Eircom executives are this week putting case-for-investment presentations to the two groups and Singapore Technologies Telemedia.


    Better a power/utility company take them over then the Irish Government!

    Saturday, May 23, 2009

    Irish Gov rules out taking over Eircom


    Thank feck for that!

    RTE.ie are reporting today that Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has ruled out State ownership of telecoms provider Eircom.

    If the government did nationalize Eircom it would cost them about 4 -5 billion euro's (debt + pensions) and they'd effectively get a outdated telecoms networks.

    If the Irish Government wanted to own a telecoms network they'd almost be better off starting a new agency and spend that 4-5 Billion euro on building new infrastructure such as fibre to the home.

    Minister Ryan went on to criticize what he called Eircom's short-term ownership model and said he would welcome and facilitate investors with the capacity to invest in a long-term business model for Eircom.

    The full story is below or can be viewed on RTE.ie:


    State ownership of Eircom ruled out
    Saturday, 23 May 2009 13:05

    Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has ruled out State ownership of telecoms provider Eircom.

    Speaking at the Telecommunications and Internet Federation's annual charity ball last night, the Minister said that while the Government attached significant importance to Eircom, State ownership of the company was not on his agenda.

    Mr Ryan criticised what he called Eircom's short-term ownership model and said he would welcome and facilitate investors with the capacity to invest in a long-term business model for Eircom.

    Friday, May 22, 2009

    Ireland drops in OECD Broadband rankings


    As discussed in the Ireland Off-Line forum on boards, Ireland has slipped in the OECD Broadband rankings PDF Available here.

    This is not a good thing for anyone and should be a major concern for the government, of course its hard for the general public to get the facts when journalists report everything arse ways!

    Will things improve in the short term....I very much doubt it!

    Thursday, May 14, 2009

    Eircom agrees job cuts


    Taken from enn.ie:
    The Irish Times reports that Eircom has reached agreement with unions on a restructuring plan that involves 1,200 job cuts and voluntary pay reductions of between 5 percent and 10 percent.

    The job cuts will be achieved by the end of June 2011. In addition, no performance-related bonuses will be paid before mid-2011, and subsistence and mileage expenses have been cut by 25 percent, along with other allowances.

    The moves are aimed at helping Eircom make annual savings of EUR130 million by the end of June 2011 as it struggles to service nearly EUR4 billion in debt and to cope with an estimated decline in its business of about 9 percent.

    Eircom also said it wants to reach agreement by the end of July on measures to tackle its EUR430 million pension deficit.

    CWU seeks Govt intervention to protect Eircom


    So The Communications Workers Union is looking for special treatment for Eircom by the Government for the good of the economy because they believe the company is part of Ireland's national infrastructure.

    While I understand where they are trying to coming from such a move would be anti-competitive in relation to holding up a private company, if a company has 3.8billion in debt and needs to cut costs then cutting 1,200 jobs is going to have to happen.

    I'm sure the CWU would be extremely happy if Smart Telecom or BT received Government backing and had some bad debts wiped off.

    My guess is the EU won't allow any such action by the government and rightly so in my view.

    Tuesday, May 05, 2009

    Help Wanted! :)



    Got a story for eircomsucks.com or want to contribute to content then please e-mail us at info[at]eircomsucks.com.

    Story's about National Broadband Scheme, ADSL roll out etc in Ireland and industry commentary are welcome.