Smart targets 40,000 broadband customers by year-end

bealtine

Irish operator Smart Telecom targets 40,000 broadband customers by the end of 2006. At the end of May, the company had 12,000 customers, with another 6,000 waiting to be connected. In a trading update, Smart said the roll out of its unbundled local loop network and connecting new customers had been proceeding more slowly than expected, partly due to obstructions from network operator Eircom. Customers are being advised it takes six weeks to get a connection. However, Smart's sales efforts begun at the start of the year had yielded around 4,000 new customers per month. On the company's ongoing legal battle to obtain a 3G mobile licence, Smart said its case against ComReg will be heard in court in July and it expects around EUR 7.7 million in extra costs from the legal problems.

Smart also reported its financial results for 2005, which showed revenues up 83 percent to EUR 45.6 million. The EBITDA loss widened to EUR 19.4 million from 8 million in 2004, while the net loss per share was EUR 0.12 versus EUR 0.08. Due to the extra costs for 3G and delays in LLU roll-out, Smart has delayed its target for breakeven at the operating level by six months to mid-2007. Smart had its ADSL2+ equipment in 24 Eircom exchanges at the end of 2005 and targets adding another 40 this year. The company was in 30 exchanges at the end of May, giving an addressable market of about 500,000 households.

1huge1

even if eircom do speed thigns up or even offer number portability 40,000 is very optimistic for year end
good luck to them though

damien

12,000 LLU customers. That seems awfully high.

8track

Smart has been available to me for months...but I'm still holding off hoping to retain phone number.

redspider

The Smart Telecom CEO was in front of an Oireachtas Committee recently and confirmed those figures. If anyone has a link to the full text of that it may be insightful. He also indicated I think that something like 12,000 that "signed up" didnt hang around and wait like 6,000 others are doing. Most of the 12,000 customers do not have LLU per se as they have been assigned new telephone numbers. This breaks Comreg guidelines and EU directives! But Eircom have succesfully defended in court against Comreg. Maybe the Irish government should be taken to an EU court, but that takes a long time and is expensive. MEP's and EC commisioners may be the best place to lobby.

Phil Nolan of Eircom was also in front of the same committee. He didnt answer it directly but clearly Eircom are dragging their heels on purpose. It is making money. They are barely converting 120 customers a day in terms of number portability, and I have anecdotal evidence of where customers have been left without their phone number working, not for mins, or hours, but days and weeks!

Its all very messy and Smart are suffering. Glad to hear that they are still able to make a buck though due to the generosity and flexibility of their customers.

redspider

Foxwood

damien.m wrote:

12,000 LLU customers. That seems awfully high.

It's an average of 400 lines in each enabled exchange. Each of those exchanges has an average of 16,000 lines (30 exchanges, 500,000 "households").

When you look at it that way, it's not that high. Once they've climbed the mountain of actually getting their kit into an exchange, the incremental effort to switch a customer onto their network is tiny. Eircom have managed to turn it into a big deal, though, for anyone who is interested in keeping their number.

LostinBlanch

Well I'm still waiting for them to come out my way. Supposed to be later this year :rolleyes:

mr_disc

Im now a smart customer 2, it only took them bout 5 working days ( after i gave them my cancellation reference with my previous ISP ( ESAT ) ), to have the kit sent out to me , im thrilled i opted for them ( good price, speed etc), as mentioned above some people wont change because of having to change their landline number .. i wonder if this will be addressed ( both here in boards and between smart and eircom ) in the future ?

namteg

Rhumor has it number portability will be available in August.

http://www.comreg.ie/whats_new/default.asp?ctype=5&nid=102328
download the pdf file from the comreg website