Eircom has set itself a target of signing up 500,000 broadband Internet customers by 2007. The company announced that it reached its target of 100,000 broadband Internet customers this year with the number of subscribers now at an estimated 102,000 customers.
The 2007 target was announced as the companyposted a 3 per cent rise in first half core earnings.
Eircom's adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the six months to September 30 were €309 million against €300 million in the same period last year.
Turnover for the period was down 3 percent at €802 million but the company said it had boosted operating profit thanks to lower costs. It took a one-off charge of €54 million as headcount was reduced by 416 during the first half.
Eircom, which announced in August that it was confident of meeting its target for 100,000 broadband Internet customers by December, said that it had reached the 83,000 mark by the end of September and was now at about 102,000.
The former state-owned company already has around 80 percent of Ireland's fixed-line phone market and hopes to grow by tapping the country's underdeveloped broadband market.
"Today we are announcing a new target of 500,000 broadband customers by December 2007," Eircom Chief Executive Philip Nolan said in a statement. "This is an ambitious target by any measure but given our current momentum ... it is achievable."
Eircom shares are almost 8 percent above the €1.55 price tag set ahead of their return to the stock market in March after being taken private in 2001 by a consortium including Irish media billionaire Tony O'Reilly and financier George Soros.