BPN 1428 Four million domain names with nl-extension

This month the 4 millionth Dutch country domain name has been registered. On the list of country domains The Netherlands ranks fourth behind Germany, UK and China. SIDN, the bureau responsible for the registration of the nl-domain, receives daily 2800 registrations a day.

Worldwide there are 250 country domains. The Netherlands is ranking fourth on the list of domain registrations behind Germany (13,7 million domain names), UK (8,6 million domain names) and China (6,8 million domain names). Combined with demographic data of 16 million Dutch people every fourth Dutchman has a domain name, giving the Netherlands the highest domain density in the world. In the Netherlands 93 per cent of the Dutch population has access to internet.

With such a high number of domain names inventiveness is essential in designing new unique domain names. The length of domain names is 63 characters long. Part of the number of domain names is just being used for personal e-mail addresses. Part of the raise of the number of domain names, 25 per cent, can be ascribed to this phenomenon.

Registrations are being made by SIDN and almost 2000 registrars. SIDN will celebrate its 15th year jubilee next year. In the same year the 25th year of the nl-domain will be celebrated.

Facts & figures
• In totally 5,1 million unique domain names with nl-extension have been registered.
• Of the 5,1 million domain names with nl-extension 1,1 million have been discontinued.
• The nl-domain name has a markets hare of 72 per cent, followed by .the com-extension with 14 per cent and eu-extension with 8 per cent.
• 38 households of the 100 Dutch households have a broadband connection, which makes Holland the worldwide frontrunner
• Most of the domain names with a nl-extension are located in Amsterdam; also in large university cities there are many domain holders.
• The average length of a domain name counts 13 characters, while most domains have a length of 11 characters.

BPN 1428

Tags: domain name

BPN 1427 Dutch fiber connections doubled

No less than 1,2 million glass fiber connections will linked in The Netherlands by 2012. In the past year the connections already doubled, but the execution of future plans is delayed. In 20 years time every household will have a fiber connection. Those are the conclusions of Stratix Consulting in their annual inventory and analysis of glass fiber in The Netherlands.

On 1 April 2009 218.000 households were linked up to the glass fiber network. One year later there were 451.000 link ups, a raise of 108 per cent. The statistics indicate the availability of glass fiber to the house holds. It does not mean that all house holds have subscribed. In the Netherlands the glass fiber link is laid up to the meter cupboard, but only connected when an application for a subscription has been made. In 2009 there were 139.000 subscribers and in 2010 only 217.000; only a raise of 56 percent.

Differences show up geographically. The roll out of glass fiber networks takes place under the free market system and makes the networks primarily available in strong social-economic areas. Money of market parties is invested mainly outside the big cities and in municipalities with a strong social cohesion, growth municipalities and new communities.

Top of the list is the province Flevoland, where almost half of the households (50,7 per cent) have a glass fiber link in their meter cupboard. The province of Brabant where the first commercial glass fiber network was introduced, has the highest number of subscribers.

Despite the raise of glass fiber house holds, Stratix notice a delay in the fiber plans, especially in Amsterdam. There the explosive growth has slowed down to a more gradual execution. In Amsterdam 47.000 households have glass fiber to the door; 15.000 households have been linked to the meter cupboard. Only 8676 households have taken out a subscription for fast internet, telecom and television.

In Almere almost 80 pct of the households have been provided with glass fiber to the door. But sofar only 7500 households have taken out subscription. In Almere KPN has technical and administrative problems, delaying the subscription conversion.

Recently the Australian research bureau Budde Comm critisized the Dutch incumbent telco KPN for the slow implementation of glass fiber. In Almere almost 80 pct of the households have been provided with glass fiber to the door. But sofar only 7500 households have taken out subscription. In Almere KPN has technical and administrative problems, delaying the subscription conversion. And people start noticing it and getting less enthusiastic to take out a subscription. Last year, March 2009, fiber was laid in Almere’s neighbourhood Tussen de Vaarten. Only in June 2010 the glass fiber was in the meter cupboards of the people. So the hunt for subscriptions started, but not for the apartment buildings. The households still have to wait for the fiber to be operational, before a subscription can be entertained. With the glass fiber already in the ground for more than a year, the investment is not turned into subscriptions yet.

BPN 1427

BPN 1426 iREX compacts to IRX

The bankrupt e-reader manufacturer iRex, a spin-off of Philips electronics, based in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) will restructure and be operational again from September 1. From September 1 the company will continue as IRX Innovations.
Besides a new name the company will have a smaller scope. It will forego the consumer market and concentrate on the business market. Geographically the company will serve the European market. The company will also sell licenses to its technological solutions.

iRex Technologies went bankrupt after an adventure on the US market. The company attempted to conquer the consumer market in association with Barnes & Noble, but it could not deliver the electronic reading tablets in time. Besides the tablets were too expensive.

Part of the 10 million euro debt has been paid off. Mr Brons will remain the CEO and the 24 employees will be re-employed. Parts of the company will sold, most likely to an Asian company. IRX Innovations will take over the goods of iRex Technologies and will use the existing e-reader modls and technology to kick start the marketing in Europe.

In a radio interview Mr. Brons indicated that the European business market will be interesting and cost less than attempting to serve the US and EU and business and consumer markets all at once.

BPN 1426

BPN 1425 KPN responds to poor FTTH uptake

KPN is one of the few incumbents to pursue FttH, though the decision to go full-steam for FttH rather than the cheaper solution of upgrading its copper network (FttC with VDSL2 in the last mile) took some time. The company initially considered that VDSL could compete effectively with DOCSIS3.0, and its latest data release shows that it still believes that copper at least in the medium term is still sufficient for most customers.


Nevertheless, at the end of 2009 the company announced that FttH was indubitably the superior technology, and that it would invest some €1.3 billion to expand the number of FttH-connected homes, essentially concentrating on FttH instead of expanding FttC. Despite this appropriate emphasis on FttH, the company is still struggling to convince most customers to sign up.

This is partly due to poor marketing, but also – and ironically – due to the success of its VDSL roll-out. VDSL serves the last mile, and large-scale roll-outs began in earnest from January 2008. The VDSL network is capable of providing up to 30Mb/s, and delivers IPTV to 80% of households and HDTV to 70%. The company plans to expand the VDSL footprint to ‘outer suburbs’ (completing this job by the end of 2011) and so increase IPTV coverage to 88% of households, but otherwise there will be no further roll-out of FttC.

In poorly marketing FttH, KPN targeted what it refers to as ‘sub-optima’ customers in its roll-out areas, or a demographic less interested in services delivered or less able to afford them. The pricing for bundled packages was also set too high, which has dissuaded many consumers from switching from their existing DSL service (considered by many to be acceptable for their needs). In reality, only about 9% of customers capable of receiving FttH sign up for the service, though this is an improvement on the 2.7% sign-up of the first quarter of 2009.

To address these poor figures, KPN has set in train a number of measures to reduce its pricing and improve the way it targets and sells to customers. It aims to reach a 60% sign-up rate of activated homes and at least 250,000 customers by 2012. Prices for its FttH tiers (from this month) have fallen by €10 per month. Yet the difference between VDSL and FttH offers, if anything, is less pronounced than before. In the pre-July pricing structure there was a €5 difference between a 20Mb/s Premium VDSL offer and a 50Mb/s Silver FttH offer. There is still a €5 difference between these two in the new pricing structure, but VDSL has been ramped up to 40Mb/s. The inclusion with FttH of an additional TV receiver, HD recording capability and more IPTV channels may be enough to tempt some customers, but KPN’s experience thus far is that the majority of customers, if they are happy enough with their service, will not switch. To address this, the company aims to improve it fibre delivery mechanism, shortening delivery times and improving its ‘first time right’ ratio. The company at least needs to convince customers that switching from copper to fibre is seamless, that there are real benefits for households’ use of IP-delivered services, and that it will not cost them more.

http://www.budde.com.au/

BPN 1424