Eircom Slipping in Home Broadband Stakes

While Eircom remains the most popular provider of internet services to Irish households, its share of the market has plummeted, new figures show. The latest Trends Series Survey into telecoms services usage in Ireland from ComReg indicates that Eircom’s share of the home internet market declined in 2007 while BT Ireland, Irish Broadband, Perlico and ClearWire all made substantial gains.

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2007, Eircom’s internet packages were used by 57 percent of home internet users, down 21 percent from the 78 percent of households who subscribed to its services in the final quarter of 2006.

During the same period, Irish Broadband’s share of the home internet market doubled from 4 percent to 8 percent to make it the second most popular provider in Ireland.

BT Ireland’s share of the market more than doubled over the year from 3 percent to 7 percent while Perlico saw its share rise from 3 percent to 6 percent. UPC (formerly NTL/Chorus) saw slight growth from the fourth quarter of 2006 to the final quarter of last year, gaining 1 percent to give it a 3 percent share of the home internet market while Clearwire came out of nowhere to gain the same percentage of users.

According to ComReg’s survey, which was conducted by Millward Brown IMS, Eircom’s market share has been particularly hit in Dublin.

The study reveals that just 40 percent of home internet users in the capital subscribed to Eircom services at the end of December 2007. Irish Broadband, meanwhile, was found to have a 17 percent share of the market in Dublin.

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