PHONELINE OPERATOR Eircom has announced a 5.6% drop in its quarterly earnings for the three months to September 30, falling to €442m having been at €468m in the preceding quarter.

While a massive number of layoffs in the past eighteen months had seen the formerly state-owned company improve its competitive position – with 1.675 staff being dropped since March 2009 – the company admitted it still had significant cuts to make under its three-year plan to improve its commercial standing.

The drop in revenues was largely attributable, RTÉ reports, to a fall in the number of phone lines it operates; the company lost 20,000 domestic subscribers in the quarter, after dropping 23,000 between April and June.

Not only that, but the remaining landline customers saw the average number of minutes of telephone usage also fall, by 12% on the same time from last year.

Its mobile phone division Meteor, meanwhile, also saw its revenues hit by a lower average spend per user – a move itself which was largely down to reductions in the costs levied on customers.

The Irish Times adds that the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, tax and depreciation remained flat at €168m.

The company has warned that its net debt remains reasonably high, and that it may have to back out on debt covenants if it does not move to tackle that debt.