NTL Ireland lifts earnings fourfold

kamobe

Interesting article on Unison.ie here.

You may have to set up an account/login to read it so:

CABLE TV provider NTL Ireland has reported a fourfold hike in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to €4m in the second quarter of the year.


NTL's revenue increased to €15m in the same period, up from €10m in the second quarter of 2001.


The company now has 370,000 Irish customers, and 28,000 of these are digital TV subscribers.


According to NTL, following the launch of a residential broadband product into a target area of 7,000 households in the first quarter, penetration is currently over 6pc and growing daily.


The business-to-business sector also continues to be a growth area for NTL Ireland with strong sales on voice, data and internet products."These are strong results in a competitive market. Our focus for the remainder of 2002 will be on developing our digital TV product and improving our customer service," said Liam Duggan, acting managing director of NTL Ireland.


At group level the company reported a drop in the number of British customers but confirmed that it narrowed losses on lower costs.


The loss was $593.9m, compared with $1.1bn in the second quarter of 2001.


NTL added that its restructuring programme was on track, following its decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May.

Hopefully this will encourage them to channel more money into residential broadband :rolleyes:

MDR

Hopefully this will encourage them to channel more money into residential broadband

They don't seem to have any money at all, hence the whole bankruptcy thing ...

pencil

According to NTL, following the launch of a residential broadband product into a target area of 7,000 households in the first quarter, penetration is currently over 6pc and growing daily.

Good God!

That's 420 households with broadband on NTL's network in Ireland. Combine that with Errorcon's 1000 broadband (domestic?) customers in Ireland - that's a whooping 1420 households participating in exciting, dynamic, state of the art E-HUB of ours!

And I thought nothing was happening, how wrong could I have been ;-)

To every politician who uttered the phase 'E-HUB' over the last 4 years, SIRS I salute you [raises glass] you all are a credit to the Country!

[font size="1"](And to those of you who voted them back in, you almost deserve what you got!) [/font]

MDR

They have 1100 broadband customers, me thinks ...

but wait

They earned €4 million this quarter after tax, 4x4 thats €16 million per year. That means it will only take them 39 years to earn back what they payed for cablelink ... great investment guys ... not long now untill you break even

Hannibal_12

Great, means if I stay in Ireland I'll get broadband when I'm in my 60's. Ahh the E-HUB of Europe indeed.

Edit: Has anyone looked at their cable internet web page recently. €30 a month for a 512 service if you subscribe to their go digital service and €35 if you dont. €35 a month + only €99 for modem for a 512 service. It pains me to see this. Compare it to €ircon's service and you really start to see what kind of monumental rip off artists they are. (If you didnt already that is)

http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/internet_cable.html

SkepticOne

Originally posted by kamobe
Hopefully this will encourage them to channel more money into residential broadband :rolleyes:

Two things, I think, need to happen. a) They need to complete their debt restructuring and come out of bankruptcy and b) they need to be under some sort of competitive threat here in Ireland.

While NTL is supplying a very basic service in Ireland without significant investment yet making money, there is very little incentive to invest in broadband.

In Britain, where there is lots of competition for TV services, NTL (despite their financial situation) are still upgrading new areas. Competition for TV services comes from Sky mainly.

The 670 million or so euros NTL spent for cablelink a few years ago is largely a sunk cost. That money is gone and they will never get it back. The logical priority now is to protect their investment and maximise revenue. If they are not under threat then they don't need to protect their investment and the focus shifts to maximising revenue from existing investment.

I would not be surprised if money generated in Ireland is being used to finance upgrades in Britain where the sort of thing they run here would not survive.

All the above, IMHO.

Celt

Originally posted by Hannibal_12
Great, means if I stay in Ireland I'll get broadband when I'm in my 60's. Ahh the E-HUB of Europe indeed.

Edit: Has anyone looked at their cable internet web page recently. €30 a month for a 512 service if you subscribe to their go digital service and €35 if you dont. €35 a month + only €99 for modem for a 512 service. It pains me to see this. Compare it to €ircon's service and you really start to see what kind of monumental rip off artists they are. (If you didnt already that is)

http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/internet_cable.html

In England they no longer allow you to buy the modem and instead charge extra money for rental.
I think it might be the same over here now.

I got free installation because I agreed to rent the modem for €5 per month.

Not bad when there's a connection fee of €92 and a fee for modem of €99.

Hannibal_12

You've got it? Whats it like? What do you pay monthly. I take it i'd be paying €40 per month (€35+5). Not bad at all. You should be thankful, you are one of the few with a decent internet connection in Ireland.

Lets compare with €ricon:
€199 connection fee,€275 for ethernet and €172 for USB and €107 per month with a 3gb cap.

By the way is there a limit on the NTL service?

Dustaz

there are currently no limits on the ntl service.

Hannibal_12

Originally posted by Dustaz
there are currently no limits on the ntl service.

No limit, Oh god it gets worse. It almost seems as if someone is deliberately doing this and deriving some sort of perverse pleasure from it. Imagine if a product like this was widely available, how would €ircon respond?. If only one of them would stop stagnating and start promoting what is at this stage well established technology.
I would imagine NTL, if they ever launch the cable service, would impose a limit on it but I would wager it would be in excess of everyones favourite telco.

crawler

Depressing it is......in particular when you are one of the sad unfortunates that live outside the ntl area like me!

Interesting one ntl....they are due to complete the financial restructure in September and it seems that most of the operations are now operating at a profit....Cabelink is now a written down asset and worth f*** all on the balance sheet.

I would imagine ntl see SKY as serious competition and I would guess that they would not like to take on Rupert at his own game! The one way to win over SKY is to offer products and services they cant - such as direct Telco and High Speed Broadband....

Having said that I dont think they will make the investment in 2 way 750Mhz cable and 2 way amps....tough one to call but I think we should watch them very carefully.