UPC Annual Results Release

Sponge Bob

I got a heads up that they are formally announcing their Mobile MVNO in Ireland tomorrow morning as well as releasing the country results.

They may also give some guidance on when they intend to complete their Network Upgrade ...rumoured to be 2012 in Dublin and 2014 nationally now.

Ben D Bus

Still waiting for home phone to be available so I can take advantage of the triple-play offers. Quad-play (4-play? ) is still a dream.

Sponge Bob

OK Headline UPC Results.

+14k BB customers in Q4 ( +16k in Q3)
+18k Telephony Customers in Q4 (+24k in Q3)

710k of their 870k customers can get Broadband now, only another 160k to enable which is perfectly doable by end 2014.

255k of the 710k have taken Broadband off them which = 36% penetration in their serviced areas.

_blank_

they'd be a perfect company if thir CS was up to scratch.

unfortunately, it's company policy for them to tell lies to customers, fob you off and make promises they have no intention of keeping.

Adolf Hipster

Des wrote: »

they'd be a perfect company if thir CS was up to scratch.

unfortunately, it's company policy for them to tell lies to customers, fob you off and make promises they have no intention of keeping.

No, no it isn't.

_blank_

Adolf Hipster wrote: »

No, no it isn't.

Well, a hell of a lot of their staff seem to think it is.

Adolf Hipster

Des wrote: »

Adolf Hipster wrote: »

No, no it isn't.

Well, a hell of a lot of their staff seem to think it is.

that's also not true, however there is certain people in there who take no pride in their work or care about helping people so they either hang up or fob you off.

Sponge Bob

The Chorus Legacy still taints their customer care. Chorus were simply the most awful company .....back in their day pre 2007.

Anyway, results. Their cable network only serves 812k housholds so only another 100k to enable. The other 50,000 homes are on MMDS or cable fed through MMDS...not proper cable then.

So to summarise. 812k are cabled properly not on an MMDS hack that will shut down in April 2014.

710k can get some Broadband service.

600k can get up to 100mbit Broadband.

No mention of the Mobile launch.

No mention of network completion targets in Dublin or say Ballinasloe.

"UPC’s Irish division reported a 100,000 increase in broadband, phone and TV subscriptions in 2011. Total broadband subscribers amount to 255,400, a 28pc increase year-on-year. Some 99pc of UPC’s Irish broadband subscribers are on speeds of 20Mbps and higher.

Overall service subscriptions now stand at 886,400, up 13pc year-on-year. These include 386,400 digital TV subscribers (up 1pc) and 162,200 phone subscribers (up 68pc).


The number of subscribers signing up for UPC's fibre-power broadband services increased by 56,200, a 28pc increase, that ended the year with 255,400 broadband subscribers.

The company revealed that more than 99pc of its customers are on speeds of 20Mbps.

Some 600,000 households are capable of receiving 100Mbps broadband if they wish.

UPC's parent company Liberty Global reported revenues of US$9.5bn, up 5pc, and an operating profit of US$1.8bn, which was up 30pc.

Speaking with Siliconrepublic.com, the CEO of UPC in Ireland Dana Strong said UPC's sustained capital investment over the past six years will reach €500m by year's end and that plans to increase its fibre footprint are being looked at.

“So we now have 600,000 households in Ireland passed by the 100Mbps speed which is a huge benefit for the broadband community and a big growth versus where we were this time last year. We're delighted with our progress - that's just over one-third of Irish households.

“The speed of adoption for us has been a really compelling story for UPC. If you want fast, reliable broadband and you're a consumer you're likely to choose UPC. So it was a good year for us, that's for sure.

“Our total footprint on cable is 812,000 households and we are continuing to upgrade within that 812,000 so that 100Mbps would reach 90pc of the 812,000 households. Outside of the 812,000 no immediate plans but it is something that we are constantly reviewing."

Strong says that while UPC has concentrated on metro areas like Dublin, Galway, Cork, Waterford and Limerick and other large towns, the economics of increasing fibre footprint to regional towns are not insurmountable.

“The main issue with infrastructure is getting to the town and if the town itself is dense in terms of fibre, it's all about the affordability of the deployment. Just because someone is in a small town doesn't mean it is unaffordable.

“It just depends on the infrastructure around that town and if its well served by a fibre ring passing close to it," Strong said.

lucernarian

Your source fairly let you down there SB!

denballs

can you guys near the top explain what those initials mean q4,s...and c5,s.......what?.....are you judging them by leaving cert standards or somthing?

F1ngers

denballs wrote: »

can you guys near the top explain what those initials mean q4,s...and c5,s.......what?.....are you judging them by leaving cert standards or somthing?

Q stands for quarter and the 4 is the fourth quarter in their yearly reports.
Q1 is January-March, Q2 is April-June...etc, etc
C5? Do you mean CS? That stands for Customer Service.

denballs

F1ngers wrote: »

Q stands for quarter and the 4 is the fourth quarter in their yearly reports.
Q1 is January-March, Q2 is April-June...etc, etc
C5? Do you mean CS? That stands for Customer Service.

thank you...im disappointed now...thought it was a new type of cable i had,nt heard of....i want a 270mb connection some time this year....japanese dude on xbox live makes me jealous

dub45

Des wrote: »

they'd be a perfect company if thir CS was up to scratch.

unfortunately, it's company policy for them to tell lies to customers, fob you off and make promises they have no intention of keeping.

I have an admission in writing from them that they lied to me!

Anyways its good to see them becoming more honest in doing away with the so called unlimited products. Although they don't exactly highlight the caps or make them easy to find. Plus whoever designed their site seems never to have heard of paragraphs.

When are they going to start being upfront with their dd customers and advise them of the outrageous charges for missing a dd?

Why do companies find it so hard to be honest with customers and potential customers?

Also isn't it long past time that they sorted out the bridging mess with their routers?

dub45

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The Chorus Legacy still taints their customer care. Chorus were simply the most awful company .....back in their day pre 2007.

.......

Surely five years is long enough to sort out that "legacy"?

rebeve

dub45 wrote: »

Surely five years is long enough to sort out that "legacy"?

Try ringing eircon sometime you have 2 hours to spare .

dub45

rebeve wrote: »

Try ringing eircon sometime you have 2 hours to spare .

What has the lousy standards of another company got to do with it? Absolutely nothing.

If you are a UPC customer the standards of another company are totally irrelevant to you.

Can never understand the logic in an argument that because one company is lousy it somehow justifies other companies being lousy???????

lucernarian

I think rebeve's post was an appropriate if perhaps too brief response. Eircom have a variety of current and legacy issues regarding their customer service which in many respects date back to Telecom Éireann.

You could take one line of reasoning and assume that the above equals justifying one wrong with another and that this is irrelevant (which it's not btw) etc.

OR

View it as an example of where another large communications company has customer service issues that have been around for years. That it's not so simple to sort out every issue even in that amount of time while still maximising shareholder return for either eircom or UPC.

Given the language in Dub45's post, it appears he took the more confrontational interpretation. I'd like to know what need you had to react like that to rebeve's comparison with another company in the market.

dub45

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I think rebeve's post was an appropriate if perhaps too brief response. Eircom have a variety of current and legacy issues regarding their customer service which in many respects date back to Telecom Éireann.

You could take one line of reasoning and assume that the above equals justifying one wrong with another and that this is irrelevant (which it's not btw) etc.

OR

View it as an example of where another large communications company has customer service issues that have been around for years. That it's not so simple to sort out every issue even in that amount of time while still maximising shareholder return for either eircom or UPC.

Given the language in Dub45's post, it appears he took the more confrontational interpretation. I'd like to know what need you had to react like that to rebeve's comparison with another company in the market.

My need is (and I have made this point consistently) to understand the logic of anyone who can apparently justify one company's lousy standards by referring to another company's lousy standards as if that in some way justified lousy standards all round.

We should be demanding high standards (or even basic standards!) from all companies not justifying one company's on the basis of awfulness of another.

The standard of customer service on offer from all of the companies is seriously lacking in even basic quality. One has only to peruse boards to realise that.

And irrespective of maximising shareholders's returns there can be no excuse for lying which some UPC staff have consistently being allowed to do as posts here on boards regularly show and of which I have direct admitted experience. (Nor is there any excuse for any company's staff to be allowed to lie by the way). And if there are legacy issues in UPC from Chorus days then I really think that five years is more than enough to sort them out. If I recall correctly didn't UPC shut down an entire customer care area around that time that Chorus were merged into NTL resulting in chaos for UPC customers?

Sponge Bob

Just like to add that UPC staff here on boards have been great but the CS in Limerick can be bloody awful....just like they were in the Chorus days. UPC SHUT the significantly higher quality NTL call centre in Waterford when they took NTL over.

dub45

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Just like to add that UPC staff here on boards have been great but the CS in Limerick can be bloody awful....just like they were in the Chorus days. UPC SHUT the significantly higher quality NTL call centre in Waterford when they took NTL over.

Great in exactly what way? They choose the issues to engage in - that's easy.

At least other companies as bad as they are openly engage in their own forums with customers on boards.

In genneral upc's communication with customers is pretty awful. Where is the communication from UPC to customers in respect of the bridging issue for example - an issue of concern to many contributors here on boards?

lucernarian

dub45 wrote: »

My need is (and I have made this point consistently) to understand the logic of anyone who can apparently justify one company's lousy standards by referring to another company's lousy standards as if that in some way justified lousy standards all round.

We should be demanding high standards (or even basic standards!) from all companies not justifying one company's on the basis of awfulness of another.

The standard of customer service on offer from all of the companies is seriously lacking in even basic quality. One has only to peruse boards to realise that.

And irrespective of maximising shareholders's returns there can be no excuse for lying which some UPC staff have consistently being allowed to do as posts here on boards regularly show and of which I have direct admitted experience. (Nor is there any excuse for any company's staff to be allowed to lie by the way). And if there are legacy issues in UPC from Chorus days then I really think that five years is more than enough to sort them out. If I recall correctly didn't UPC shut down an entire customer care area around that time that Chorus were merged into NTL resulting in chaos for UPC customers?

And what's that got to do with the price of barley? Along with what I said already, if UPC could have sorted out these remaining problems then they probably would have by now. Eircom have had customer service issues for years also and some of those issues are still around today. I think it's perfectly relevant to cite other examples of similar companies who also lie. It helps underline how it's not as easy to improve on every aspect of customer service even over the space of a few years and even if you're a large company with significant market clout.

As it stands in my eyes, you have still failed to demonstrate how he "[justified] one company's lousy standards by referring to another company's lousy standards". I think you're reading into something that's just not there.

Edit:


If five years is indeed enough time to remedy all the problems, what reasons do you postulate for UPC not acting on them? Examples would be bridging functionality for their routers, the issues in getting the odd house onto the UPC database or else upgraded to broadband like their neighbours (the download limit is as far as I'm concerned clearly visible now when you look at the product information - I don't think it needs to be visible at every possible opportunity for people to get the message).

And wouldn't eircom or other companies have similar reasons also for not sorting out legacy issues? (E.g. not getting all of Cork City access to DSL or other forms of eircom broadband, the ongoing line prequal issues, the way they won't tell people what their likely broadband speed will be when they order an "up to 8 mbps" package on a line.)

The point behind all this is that there's much more to it than the amount of time UPC have had to remedy problems and this can be borne out by how other large companies still suffer from C/S issues and mistruths etc.

dub45

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

dub45 wrote: »

My need is (and I have made this point consistently) to understand the logic of anyone who can apparently justify one company's lousy standards by referring to another company's lousy standards as if that in some way justified lousy standards all round.

We should be demanding high standards (or even basic standards!) from all companies not justifying one company's on the basis of awfulness of another.

The standard of customer service on offer from all of the companies is seriously lacking in even basic quality. One has only to peruse boards to realise that.

And irrespective of maximising shareholders's returns there can be no excuse for lying which some UPC staff have consistently being allowed to do as posts here on boards regularly show and of which I have direct admitted experience. (Nor is there any excuse for any company's staff to be allowed to lie by the way). And if there are legacy issues in UPC from Chorus days then I really think that five years is more than enough to sort them out. If I recall correctly didn't UPC shut down an entire customer care area around that time that Chorus were merged into NTL resulting in chaos for UPC customers?

And what's that got to do with the price of barley? Along with what I said already, if UPC could have sorted out these remaining problems then they probably would have by now. Eircom have had customer service issues for years also and some of those issues are still around today. I think it's perfectly relevant to cite other examples of similar companies who also lie. It helps underline how it's not as easy to improve on every aspect of customer service even over the space of a few years and even if you're a large company with significant market clout.

As it stands in my eyes, you have still failed to demonstrate how he "[justified] one company's lousy standards by referring to another company's lousy standards". I think you're reading into something that's just not there.

Your eyes are of course welcome to their view!

rebeve

I have been a customer with most of the main players in the broadband market.
UPC are without doubt the best provder (IMHO) ,not perfect .The cs staff on average are aggreeable enough .I have had my issues with them ,but none that could not be resolved .Treating the cs staff with respect helps.

colm_mcm

The company revealed that more than 99pc of its customers are on speeds of 20Mbps.

This actually should read that 99% are on 20mb speed (packages) or over.
Ie only 1% are on the legacy 1mb and 12mb speeds