Internet in the Netherlands
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The Netherlands has the highest broadband penetration in the European Union. DSL is available for 99% of the population and broadband cable is available for 90% of the population. 57% of Dutch households use a broadband connection. DSL has a market share of 60% and broadband cable a market share of 40%. The market shares of the service providers are stated below. (The figures are from December 2005, unless otherwise stated). Several upload and download rates are available, depending on the network provider.
[edit] DSL
Five DSL network service providers with approx. 2.5 million broadband subscribers (60%):
- 40%: KPN (the incumbent or former state telco)
- 3%: Orange SA (a subsidiary of France Telecom)
- 3%: Tele2
- 3%: Tiscali Wholesale (a subsidiary of Tiscali SpA)
- 1%: BBned (a subsidiary of Telecom Italia)
KPN has nearly 100% coverage and other networks have 50-70% coverage.
KPN has five ISP brands: Direct ADSL, HetNet, Planet, Telfort and XS4ALL. HetNet and Planet used to be separate companies, but they were bought and integrated into KPN and are now only brand names. KPN has in recent years acquired several other ISPs. None of their brand names were adopted by KPN and they ceased to exist.
XS4ALL is owned, but not run by KPN. XS4ALL was the first ISP in the Netherlands which offered internet access to the general public and is used by KPN as a main innovator and for that reason reserved the right to run its own affairs. KPN has acquired even more customers by XS4ALL taking over ISPs as well. These include Cistron, HCCnet and most recently the Dutch branch of Demon internet.
In 2005 Siemens installed a new ethernet core network for KPN. In the first half of 2006 Alcatel upgraded KPN's DSL equipment for KPN/Planet Internetplusbellen (VoIP), HetNet Surfen & Bellen (VoIP) and KPN Slim (a low cost, flat-rate internet connection of 128 kbit/s with VoIP). For VoIP, customers get a new modem (KPN Experiabox: Siemens Gigaset SX551 ADSL2+ router with four ethernet ports, WiFi, USB and two telephone ports). This is a direct result of the VoIP services offered by other network providers. In 2007 KPN will also begin to offer Mine (IPTV with VoD). In 2010 KPN plans to offer VDSL on an All-IP network and plans to dismantle the PSTN/POTS network and the local exchanges to compete with the cable companies.
[edit] Cable
The five largest Cable network service providers with approximately 1.6 million broadband subscribers (40%):
These networks are based on the EuroDOCSIS standard and are VoIP capable based on the PacketCable standard. The three largest cable providers UPC, @Home and Casema have a combined market share of 92% of the broadband cable subscribers. Several other small local cable (internet) providers exist. Typically there is no choice for consumers as to their cable provider, as it is location dependent.
@Home, Casema and Multikabel are bought by private equity investors and will be combined to form one large cable network (September 2006).
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