BPN 1441 Dutch pension funds in FttH

Three Dutch pension funds (ABP, PGGM and PvVervoer) have set up the Communications Infrastructure Fund (CIF) in which they have invested some €1 billion. The purpose of the fund is to develop, over the next ten years or so, a national fibre network through a range of mergers and acquisitions of existing networks as well as new builds and network expansion commitments. This network will be made available to all players including the incumbent KPN and the principal cableco UPC and Ziggo.

CIF also aims to invest in antennae to be used by mobile network operators for their mobile broadband offers based on HSPA+ and LTE technologies. The move is astute, given recent developments in both the fixed-line and mobile markets.

A report from the Task Force Next Generation Networks to the government in mid-2010 recommended that 90% of Dutch homes and businesses have access to NGN broadband services by 2020. The report covered proposals for rolling out faster networks, and assessed ways by which average download speeds could be increased to between 75Mb/s and 400Mb/s by 2020, compared to 5Mb/s to 14 Mb/s currently.

Mobile broadband will have a more substantial role to play in pushing high-end data services to rural areas: the April 2010 auction for licences in the 2.6GHz band saw four licences awarded to the joint venture between Ziggo and UPC, Ziggo 4 (set up in December 2009 to deploy and run telecom and broadcast networks). This will allow the cablecos, which together have near national geographic coverage, to complement their existing bundled services (based on fixed-line access) with mobile voice and broadband offers.

KPN’s HSPA network is currently being upgraded to provide up to 21.6Mb/s, while Vodafone in July 2010 doubled download speeds on its HSPA network to 28.8Mb/s in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague. Tele2 NL in the same month announced plans to trial LTE in Diemen and Amsterdam (Tele2 also received four licences in the 2.6GHz frequency auction). All of these players would be able to make use of CIFs fibre-based mobile antennae as backhaul.

A main consideration for CIF is to provide a healthy return on investment for its clients. Real estate and most stocks have proved very volatile since late 2008, and there remain few safe havens for investors. The final cost of the project may reach up to €10 billion.

For more info see: Budde Blog

BTW In June the fibre connection was brought to the cupbord of our Almere apartment. But there is still no live connection. All this FttH effort has been going on in our neighbourhood since 2009.

BPN 1441

BPN 1355 FTMH - UPC lowers internet tariffs

Since Monday UPC in the Netherlands has lowered its internet tariffs drastically. Since it completed its Fiberpower (fibre to the corner) and offers speeds up to 120Mbps, UPC is technically ready to compete with KPN and other ISPs in the fibre networks. The only real difference is that UPC for the time being will compete with FttH networks, while UPC has fibre networks to the corner. The last mile will be a coax link. Another technical difference is that the FttH fibre networks connect subscribers one-to-one to the network, while UPC links a series of subscribers to the head station; with more subscribers on the line the speed will slow down.

Now UPC starts to compete in the market by lowering the tariffs. The new internet subscriptions have six flavours. The cheapest one with a download speed of 5Mbps and an upload speed of 0,5 Mbps will cost 18 euro. For the fastest speed of 120Mbps download speed and 10Mbps a subscriber will pay 70 euro. The other four intermediary speeds are:
- 25Mbps (down)/1,5Mbps (up): 25 euro;
- 30Mbps (down)/3Mbps (up): 30 euro;
- 60Mbps (down)/6Mbps: 40 euro;
- 90Mbps (down)/6Mbps: 50 euro.


UPC starts the marketing campaign by inviting subscribers to change throughout its area. Yesterday I received an offer to pay the same money for a triple play subscription, while the internet speed was raised from 10Mbps to 30Mbps. For 46 euro I would receive 30Mbps, digital TV with DVR with a standard package of radio and TV as well as an unlimited telephony package; mind you the comparable KPN offer would cost me 65 euro. The offer of UPC is good for two weeks.

It is a first shot in the competition to come. There are already areas with fibre coverage. But soon large areas like in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Almere will be operational. In Almere for example no less than 75.000 homes will have been passed in the fibre network by the end of 2009. A majority of these households still have a subscription to UPC cable, because of the television distribution; only a minority have a triple play subscription. KPN so far is the only provider which can offer a triple play subscription on fibre. Other ISPs have indicated to follow, but have not published their offer and are not canvassing. But also KPN starts to mingle into the fight as it now has a 6 months offer of its silver package of 80 euro (50Mbps download; 5 Mbps upload; > 70 TV-channels; unlimited telephony; free installation) for the price of a bronze package of 65 euro (30Mbps download; 3 Mbps upload; > 50 TV-channels; unlimited telephony; free installation). But this is only a temporary offer with no sight on the price going up or staying the same as the offer.

The Netherlands will go into the holiday mode soon, roughly within two weeks. After the holiday in September the real fight will engage. I guess that the offers will get better by that time. So I will not even consider the UPC offer yet. But it is nice to see that the old cable monopolist is fighting against the incumbent telco. It means competition and lower prices.

Blog Posting Number: 1355

Tags: cable, fibre

BPN 1339 FTMH - The vote for fiber is yes

The meeting of the owners’ association was disappointing. There was no representative of AlmeerNet. In one or another way I had misinterpreted the point on the agenda. No representative to answer my four questions.

So the members of the owners’ association were asked to vote in favour of a motion, whereby AlmeerNet can link every apartment to the mainline. Voting for this motion was easy. It does not cost anyone a dime; besides the apartment is easier to sell with a link to glass fiber than without. The motion was passed with a large majority. Next step in the project will be the linking.

It brings closer the question, which company to choose. So far there were three parties involved: UPC, AlmeerNet and KPN.
UPC is the incumbent cable operator which has upgraded its cable network to fiber, but the optical cable ends in the headstations (Fiber to the Curb). The last mile consists of coax/copper cable. The UPC upgrade allows speeds of 25, 60 and 120Mbps with a Eurodocsis cable modem. For the 120Mbps connection UPC asks resp. 50,50, 60,50 and 80,50 euro a month, exclusive of telecom and radio and television..
AlmeerNet runs the open network. They do not deliver the services to the subscribers, but keep the network going technically. AlmeerNet is an initiatiive of the Almere Fiber Consortium, consisting of the municipality Almere, the housing corporations Goede Stede, Ymere, Alliance Flevoland and Reggefiber (51 pct majority by KPN).
KPN is a service provider to AlmeerNet. It will offer telephone, television and internet. Other services such as security will also be offered in the future. KPN offers three speed packages of 30, 50 and 60 Mbps download with 3,5 and 6 Mbps upload for the price of resp. 65, 80 and 110 euro, including free telecom traffic and resp. 50, 70 and 100 tv channels.

New is the announcement of Online as provider for AlmeerNet. Online is the latest platitudinous name for the former Orange broadband service; Online is part of the joint venture Orange and T-Mobile. So far Online has offered ADSL and cable services; now it has added fiber subscription. However the offer of Online is not known yet. Besides more service providers would be welcome, preferably with smaller TV channel offers (who can watch 100 channels a day; ridiculous).



Looking at the table there are two remarks. UPC makes an offer for fast internet, exclusive of a required basic TV package and optional telecom. KPN makes an offer for less fast internet, but inclusive of television and telecom. These are however the offers on internet. UPC and KPN have introduction offers. In Almere, UPC and KPN have now special offers. Both companies play with the television and telecom extras.

And there are more differences such as the speed. UPC offers 120Mbps, while KPN offers 60Mbps as maximum on AlmeerNet for our neighbourhood. This is strange, for I know for sure that a month ago KPN offered 100Mbps. There is still another difference in the speed. UPC offers internet from a headstation to more subscribers in the same area. AlmeerNet and her providers like KPN and Online offer a one-to-one connection to the subscriber. This means that the UPC speed will vary depending on the number of users, while the AlmeerNet speed will be stable.

Blog Posting Number: 1339

Tags: fiber, cable

BPN 1316 FTMH - Fiber To My (Almere) Home

Fiber is getting close to our apartment in Almere now, as you can see from the photograph. Work is being done on the ring of fiber cables around the city. Two weeks ago the orange fiber cable was visible in our neighbourhood. Presently company laying the fiber cable is preparing the main routes in the neighbourhood. One of the difficulties is the crossing of the canal in front of our apartment.

Elsewhere in the city I saw work being done, laying the fiber cable in the street and bringing the fiber behind every door. The company has learned from the Amsterdam experience where in first instance the fibre cable was laid up to the door; then the marketing campaign for the subscriptions was started and the fiber connected to the home, behind the door. As this method yielded few subscriptions, now every house and apartment is connected (if permission is given by the owner).

But it is not only the fiber cables that tell the arrival of glass fiber in the neighbourhood. A public relation offensive has also been started. A letter and paper has been delivered to every mailbox, proclaiming the benefits of fiber and the activities in the neighbourhood. During the meeting of apartment owners next month, a representative of AlmeerNet will come to speak and answer questions.

In the meantime the network organisation, known as AlmeerNet, has been active already in other parts of Almere Harbour and Almere City. By the end of the year 70.000 houses will have to be connected. Presently 275 people are employed in the project.

I will follow the project closely as decisions have to be made: do we choose for AlmeerNet or are we sticking to UPC. The speed will not really be the issue, but the offer of radio and television programs and perks as well as the financial subscription will. Besides AlmeerNet has one provider, the incumbent telco KPN, so far, while it is an open net; UPC is a closed net so far and has also one provider, UPC itself. Yet there is a politically unanswered question whether KPN has a monopoly for the first year.

In short: decisions, decisions. I will follow and write the whole process of the fiber cable laying, the PR to the potential customers, the offer and the political situation. The articles on this subject will be gathered in the blog FTMH – Fiber To My (Almere) Home.

Blog Posting Number: 1316

Tags: fiber, fibre

BPN 1302 Glassfiber in The Netherlands comes slowly (1)

Glassfiber has been proclaimed as the knowledge promoter in The Netherlands and should be implemented with the assistance of the government and municipalities. In the meantime a mosaic of projects can be seen on the map of The Netherlands. Yet the uptake is meagre in the main cities Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Amsterdam
In the beginning of February the news broke that the municipality of Amsterdam had concluded an agreement with Reggefiber/KPN for 100.000 more glassfiber connections. It looks impressive, but is it?

After a long battle with UPC and the European Commission went ahead with the first phase of Glassfiber Net Amsterdam (GNA), in which the municipality of Amsterdam, the bank ING and KPN/Reggefiber and housing co operations partook. A first batch of 43.000 households would get access to glassfiber connections.

In the meantime glassfiber has laid to 43.000 households, of these only 8 to 9.000 households have glassfiber behind the front door. But only 3.000 households are active clients and have a subscription to the glassfiber and a package for telephone, television and internet. A representative for the network blamed the first strategy for the low uptake. The glassfiber was laid up to the front door and was only linked up when people took out a subscription. This strategy has now been changed. Glassfiber is now connected up to the front door and immediately packages are offered to the potential subscribers. Presently four providers offer packages: Concepts ICT, InterNLnet, Alice (BBned), Qfast and KPN.

Amsterdam started the discussion on glassfiber years ago and was advised to take the lead in laying a glassfiber network. The argument was that glassfiber was still too expensive for commercial parties and that the municipality had to be the leading party. Cable operator UPC disagreed with this discussion and fought the decision up to the European Commission. It did not see a level playing field for network operators. However the European Commission gave the municipality permission to take an equal share as the commercial partners in the glassfiber network project.

In the meantime the glassfiber scene has changed. The projects have become commercial projects as the costs have gone done dramatically. A connection to the household has come down to 800 euro. Did the project managers formerly put down the condition, that 40 percent of the household should participate, now in the new agreement of 100.000 connections Reggefiber/KPN does not request such a clause in the agreement. Now the glassfiber networks are offered with packages offering internet speeds of 60, 80 and 100 Mbps. In the meantime the cable operator UPC is offering speeds up to 120 Mbps over its own cable network.

Blog Posting Number: 1302

Tags: glassfiber

BPN 1245 Dutch cyber crime Code of Conduct in effect

The Minister for Foreign Trade Heemskerk kicked off the 'Notice-and-Take-Down' Code of Conduct in The Hague today. The Code sets out how internet companies are to handle reports about illegal websites. Under the terms of the Code of Conduct, illegal websites hosted from the Netherlands will eventually be removed. Substantial progress fighting spam, spyware and malware has been made over the past years. The new code will help to tackle other illegal activities on the internet, including handling stolen goods, discrimination or phishing.

The code of Conduct is based on good practices from businesses, governments and other parties involved in fighting cybercrime. The Code has been drawn up under the patronage of the National Infrastructure Cybercrime (Ministry of Economic Affairs) by market parties including KPN, XS4ALL, ISPConnect, Dutch Hosting Provider Association, NLKabel, Ziggo, UPC, CAIW, Zeelandnet and domain register SIDN. Ministries, the police and investigation services and organisations including Marktplaats/eBay and the copyright police BREIN collaborated in setting up the code. Affiliated businesses - 85% of all access providers and several hosting providers - hereby send a clear signal that the internet is not to be used for illegal practices.

Those responsible for placing illegal content on the internet are often difficult to trace. As reports about illegal Dutch sites are rarely acted upon, these sites often remain online. The Code sets out the agreements between participants and their specific roles in dealing with reports they receive. In principle, internet users can report any illegal content they come across to those responsible for placing the content on the net. If this is not possible or if they don't know who to approach, users can report their find to the next party down the chain. This may be the manager of a discussion forum, the company that hosts the relevant website, the service provider or, as a last resort, the police. These other parties in the chain will make every effort to get the information off line. The new Code will become effective today.

The Code will be followed up later this year with more measures to fight cybercrime. For instance, a ban on sending spam to companies will be introduced from early next year.

Blog Posting Number: 1245

Tags: cybercrime, phishing, spam, spyware, malware

BPN 1211 Dutch VoIP market grows 5.1% to 2.87 million users

The total Dutch consumer telephony market grew by almost 44,000 connections during the second quarter of 2008 to 5.797 million, despite a 4.2 percent drop in PSTN/ISDN connections to 2.57 million on 30 June 2008, according to Telecompaper’s quarterly update on the Dutch fixed telephony market. The number of mobile-only households increased to 1.283 million. The number of Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) users grew by 17,000 during the fourth quarter to 360,000 on 30 June 2008. As expected by KPN and the main WLR provider Tele2, quarterly growth has levelled out after a quick start in the second quarter of 2007. The number of Dutch consumer VoIP subscriptions grew 5.1 percent during the quarter, to 2.866 million at the end of June 2008, driven by DSL VoIP with 5.8 percent, while cable VoIP only reported a quarterly growth of 3.8 percent. DSL VoIP expanded its lead as most used VoIP technology with 1.459 million connections at the end of June compared with 1.361 million cable VoIP customers on the same date.

KPN saw its share of the Dutch digital telephony market grow to 34.3 percent on 30 June 2008 due to its entry-level brand Telfort. During the second quarter, KPN won 60,000 new customers, growing 6.5 percent compared with the first quarter of 2008 and ending June 2008 with 983,000 VoIP users. Ziggo won 25,000 new telephony customers during the second quarter to end the period with 770,000 VoIP users, keeping its place as the second-largest VoIP provider in the Netherlands, although its market share dropped to 26.9 percent. The third-largest VoIP provider, UPC won 20,400 new customers, ending the quarter with 526,100, losing only 0.1 percent market share to end June with 18.4 percent of the VoIP market.

“It is expected that the digital telephony market will continue to grow at an average rate of around 7 percent per quarter to reach the 3 million subscribers mark during the third quarter, while the Dutch VoIP market will reach around 3.25 million users by the end of 2008.

Blog Posting Number: 1211

tags: VoIP, cable, fixed telephone VoIP, cable, fixed telephone, fixed telephone

BPN 1189 Dutch still satisfied with analogue TV

Presently I am exploring digital television. Having bought a wide screen television and having a wide screen PC, I accepted a package from UPC consisting of a faster internet connection up to 10Mb, unlimited use of the phone and digital television. In the digital television offer are a lot of channels, which I have never seen and for which I hardly have time to view them. Sometimes the picture is better than analogue television; but on the other hand there is always a channel, which does not have the proper pixel order and broken sound fragments. I am I impressed? No, not really. Looking at the cheaper Digitenne (DVB-T) of the incumbent telecom operator KPN, it looks like there is not much difference except the monthly fee. Besides, by October 2009 the apartment will be connected with Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and a new choice of a provider will have to be made. So far the incumbent telecom operator KPN is one of the parties offering three packages of triple play.

Just when I am exploring digital television, I got to read the results of a survey by KPMG and TNS NIPO on analogue and digital television among 1.100 Dutch respondents. The good news is that 60 per cent of the respondents are familiar with digital television. The bad news is that one in four Dutch households has moved to digital television. So our household is one of them, but it also means that there are three households which are still watching analogue television as they are not convinced of the advantages of digital television. Another practical objection for switching to digital television is that you get one media player and will have to buy another media set for any other television in the house.

The Dutch television consumer is happy with the quality of the pictures delivered and sees no reason to call the service desk of cable companies like UPC or Ziggo or run to the service shops to book the digital television immediately. Besides the satisfaction with the analogue view of the television, the price is too high and the extra advantages are not clear.

Of course the price factor is holding people back. UPC has attempted to get every subscriber on digital television by offering them a media player, regardless whether they asked for it or not. That campaign went down the drain. Now they have composed three marketing packages with offers you can not refuse. Still people are holding back and do not see the necessity not the extra pay. Of course they can also switch to KPN and pay roughly 7 euro for digital television instead of the 15 euro for UPC’s analogue television.

As digital television should be the portal to movies and Music services on demand, it also means that the operators are still not reaping the maximum benefits of digital television. Yet the Dutch will pay just 3 euro for films and movies. Just 11 per cent is willing to pay more to get an ad-free channel.

It is clear that the television operators are going to have a hard time to sell their digital service. People do not want to have the technical hassle, despite all the promise of the operators that it will be easy to connect. Most people know that FTTH is near and they will wait for that. Then they will have to make a principal choice of technology (FTTH or cable) and of operator.

Blog Posting Number: 1189

Tags: digital television, FTTH

BPN 1159 Dutch telecom watchdog set on opening-up the cable

This morning the Commission of OPTA, the Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority of the Netherlands, released a press statement, which frees the telecom incumbent of the obligation to have the tariffs for the consumer market approved; puts obligations for KPN with regard to the business market; forces the cable operators to allow third parties on their networks.

It is a very radical move in telecom country. However OPTA thinks that the balance between the telecom operators and the cable operators is getting uneven. The cable operators are gaining more subscribers, while in specific sectors in telecom, for example business, no competition is at all.

The press release is a first signal of the OPTA that it is serious with the measures. It announces that the full report will be published by August 5, 2008. However the measures will only become effective after hearing the parties and getting the approval of the European Commission.

It is no the first time that OPTA has announced measures for the telecom and cable sectors. But they have also found that the European Commission does not always agree with the authority. So the measures mentioned in today’s press release can not be taken for granted. But the set of measures to balance the telecom sector and the cable operators’ sector are important, certainly as market shares have grown.

KPN has expressed it satisfaction, as it will b free now to set tariffs without approval. The cable operators have given a mixed reaction. UPC is not happy and puts trust in the European Commission. Other cable operators say that they first want to read the 5 August report.

The press release reads like this:
OPTA: Less regulation for telephony market, broadcast market open
Today the Commission of OPTA, the Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority of the Netherlands, is presenting its new preliminary draft decisions for the markets for fixed telephony, broadband internet access and leased lines. In them OPTA sets out the measures, which it feels are required to promote innovation, investments and competition in consumers’ interests during the regulatory period ahead. Partly thanks to the remedies which OPTA has imposed on KPN in the telephony market to date and the fact that cable telephone services are gaining ground, it is possible to dispense with KPN’s obligations in the consumer market. From now on KPN is exempt from retail obligations, such as those governing minimum and maximum tariffs, and it is allowed to compete freely. However, OPTA has had to impose stricter obligations on KPN in the wholesale telephone market in order to achieve this relaxation. In addition, OPTA has imposed a duty on cable service providers to resell cable connections, otherwise the regulatory authority foresees insufficient competition in the broadcasting markets. In this way consumers will be able to choose from whom they wish to obtain their analogue television bundle in the same way that they are already able to choose between various telephone service providers using KPN’s network. (more)

Blog Posting Number: 1159

Tags: telephony, cable, monopoly

BPN 1134 Digitalisation disruptive for TV

During the MPJC, Erik Jan Geelink spoke on television. He put into perspective what was going on in the television world. Erik Jan has worked amongst other for UPC on the (failed) introduction of their media box. He looked at the television world, which finally is trying to turn the page from analogue to digital.

Television has not been known for innovation. Yet the present digitalisation is a disruptive technology for the television industry. Despite the fact that the broadcast industry was warned in 1996 for personal television and other new trends, it is only now that broadcast companies, public or commercial, start to realise that they will have to do something with internet and digital television. So far internet was an extension of the television and radio programs, but with digital television through cable, glass fibre, terrestrial digital network or IPTV there is another medium than the traditional television coming up.

In the Netherlands there are 3,4 million digital TVs in the home, which means a penetration of 44,5 percent. Cable is still the dominant carrier, while satellite usage decreases. On the other hand terrestrial digital TV, Digitenne, is a hit in the Netherlands, mainly due to the lower price than cable. The conclusion is that cable is on its way down.

On the other hand video is maturing. The quality of video is differentiating, according to the principle horses for courses. In the temple of video, the cinema, you can not show the YouTube movies made with a mobile. Yet every minute almost 10 hours of video are mounted on YouTube. The British public broadcast company BBC has developed the iPlayer; the usage of the player will cost 1 billion euro for broadband capacity. Who will pay the bill: the ISP or the user. It just indicates that video is in demand.

The television production chain is also changing due to the digitalisation. Most broadcast people still think in terms of a linear production chain of creation, aggregation and distribution. But with digital television the production chain becomes more efficient, but also become more interactive. The viewer can respond to the program, participate with the red knob and even offer content for showing. Presently digital channels are created around a theme such as history, humour and consumer matters. Basically they are Catch-up Channels. Either you want to inform yourself or relax or you have missed a program and want to catch up using a theme channel. The Dutch Uitzending Gemist of the public broadcast companies is such a catch-up channel and is very successful.

The disruptive technology of digitalisation in the television world will change the paradoxes. Years ago the content offer was scarce due to the technology. Now content is abundant due to the plethora of media, but is the attention from the user, which will be scarce.

Blog Posting Number: 1134

Tags: digital television, catch-up channeldigital television, catch-up channel

BPN 1130 Dutch cable operator eyes IPO

The Dutch cable operator Ziggo is contemplating a stock quotation, so its financial director said. The recently formed cable company leaked the news just as it was buried under a flood of complaints. To make matters worse, the company experienced technical hiccups of its network over the weekend.

Ziggo is the largest cable operator in The Netherlands with 3,2 million connections, serving 7,8 million people. The company is a three-way merger of the cable operators Casema, @Home en Multikabel. The companies were bought by two British equity companies Warburg Pincus and Cinven. Usually these companies hold the shares of companies for three to seven years. An IPO in the short run is not expected due to the bad stock exchange climate.

An IPO opens the door for foreign companies to come. Before the merger into Ziggo the private equity houses hoped to sell the cable companies to UPC, which was the largest cable company at that time with 2,1 million connections. Together UPC and the merger would have delivered a countrywide network and would have established competition for the incumbent telecom company KPN. However UPC’s holding company Liberty Global declined the invitation.

The remarks about an IPO were made in a week that the Dutch consumer association started a complaints’ desk as Ziggo was unable to handle all the traffic. In less than a week the consumer association registered 10.000 complaints, ranging from administrative actions to helpdesk problems with telephone, internet and television. The management of Ziggo was completely taken by surprise. Customers grew angry because of the long waiting times and the tariff for the helpdesk. Ziggo will meet the consumer association this week to solve to exchange the results of the complaints’ desk.

By the end of the week the disasters were still not over. Affecting more than 300.000 subscribers in the Utrecht province, the telephone network showed a defect, affecting the telephone and internet services. By Sunday night the breakdowns had been solved.

Despite the swell of complaints and the technical breakdown the company went on to advertise its services on radio, enticing new subscribers. A company spokes person indicated that they had followed the PR rule book for mergers. However they should have known that two is a party and three is a crowd.

Blog Posting Number: 1130

Tags: cable, IPO

BPN 1039 Zesko largest Dutch digital TV operator

The total number of Dutch TV connections grew by 10,100 to 7.73 million on 31 December 2007, with the digital TV growth only just off-setting the drop in analogue TV connections. The number of digital TV connections grew by 5.4 percent or 169,200 net additions during the quarter to 3.32 million on 31 December 2007, according to the quarterly update about the Dutch television subscribers market, by Telecompaper, an independent Dutch telecom market research bureau..

Both terrestrial and IPTV saw their market share grow on the Dutch digital TV market to 14.5 percent and 5.1 percent respectively, while cable and satellite continued to lose market share. The penetration of digital TV on the Dutch cable networks continued to grow, ending 2007 at 26.3 percent compared with 14.6 percent at the end of 2006.

The Dutch digital TV market's quarterly growth is expected to reach 7 percent during the first two quarters of 2008. The growth will be driven by KPN's continued effort to win as many as Digitenne customers as possible, and a steady increase of analogue cable TV customers changing over to digital TV via their cable network operator. Telecompaper estimates that the Dutch digital TV market will reach the 4 million user-milestone in the beginning of the third quarter of 2008.

On the digital TV market, Zesko became the largest provider by winning 87,000 customers during the fourth quarter, to end 2007 with 834,000 digital TV customers. Satellite TV operator Canal Digitaal lost its position as largest digital TV operator but continued its quarterly growth of around 3 percent to end the year with almost 800,000 customers. UPC saw its the number of digital TV customers grow by 18,900 to 550,300 on 31 December 2007, while KPN reported the highest growth of 20 percent to reach 497,000 subscribers on 31 December 2007.

The battle for the Dutch digital TV market has now four main players: the cable operators Zesko and UPC and IPTV operators KPN and Tele2. Zesko is the holding in which the cable operators Casema and Multikabel have been united.

Blog Posting Number: 1039

Tags: digital television, IPTV

BPN 1033 BBC protects Dutch TV distribution rights

BBC fights with a Dutch dish contractor about the distribution of television packages for BB1 and BBC. Both parties are now involved in a legal case. The case was reported by Peter Olsthoorn in Emerce.

The Dutch dish contractor Hertzinger has grown into the media distribution business besides the installation of satellite receptors and glass fibre connectors in housing complexes and housing projects. Hertzinger picks up the satellite signals centrally and distributes them by glass fibre cables to homes.

Hertzinger competes with cable operators. In Amsterdam the company modestly competes for example with UPC; Hertzinger has some 10.000 subscribers to its services there. The difference between the Hertzinger and the UPC offers is that UPC installs, owns and operate the cable, while the satellite reception and connectors for the cable are owned by the organisation of home owners and home companies. Hertzinger delivers media services, for example, to the glass fibre operator Ons Net in Nuenen and to several other glass fibre networks.


Hertzinger delivers media packages or as it claims on its site, rights to media packages. It sells its service for a few euro under the price of the cable operators and even less in case of housing corporations. The company delivers for example 50 television channels and 30 radio channels for 14 euro.

Hertzinger claims that it is allowed to deliver BBC1 and BBC2 in the media packages and has the right to do so. But BBC does not agree on this point as the BBC has only an agreement with NLkabel, the Dutch association of cable operators, for the distribution of the BBC1 and BBC2 channels against an agreed tariff.

The whole affair started last year with an injunction, but this was suspended and in May 2007 converted into a full fledged legal case between the state company BBC and Hertzinger. The legalities of the case look easy. BBC is owner of the content and distribution rights, so a company should have an agreement with the BBC. On the other hand BBC1 and BBC2 can be received by satellite for free. In the Netherlands BBC1 and BBC2 are included in the media packages and the cable operators pay for this distribution right and charge subscribers for these channels. Problem is that BBC has an exclusive agreement (= monopoly) with the members of the cable operators’ association. When Hertzinger looses the case, it will have to negotiate with BBC or drop the channel from its package. Besides when Hertzinger looses this case, other television and radio channels might hand in a claim for payment. A ruling is expected in the coming months.

Blog Posting Number: 1033

Tags: television, distribution rightstelevision,cable, cable distribution

BPN 1025 EU: safer internet for children at 55 mln euro

Last week the EC announced an even safer internet programme for 2009 till 2013. In the past weeks we have been able to see on the national levels several expressions of the present programme running from 2005 till 2009.

In the Netherlands the awareness club Digibewust published a pdf downloadable brochure for the family on how to handle internet dangers. The brochure is cooperation between government and business as Liberty/UPC sponsored the publication. The brochure got straight away flack. It was not because of the brochure itself, which has been a co-production between countries. And you can see that. It is a black colour film production. In the brochure only the text has been translated, while almost all the illustration have been left in tact, this is in English. No adaptation or translation. Even an exercise in SMS lingo has not been translated or adapted; this while there is at least one SMS dictionary in Dutch. Yet the spokesperson for the awareness club characterised the brochure as successful and a real European product. I beg to disagree with the lady: if European means that we are not going to adapt and translate colour film illustration because of the costs, give us national products and you can not call a brochure successful without a survey measuring the effects. I think more effort should be put into producing such a brochure.

But the brochure got real flack as it had been merely translated in Dutch and not adapted to the legislation. As for downloading the brochure states that downloading is forbidden. In the Netherlands downloading is still not forbidden. Of course music companies and lobbies like NVPI would love to see it. However, present legislation still allows people to make and save a copy at home. Selling copies commercially and uploading music or movies is forbidden in the Netherlands. The spokesperson has granted the mistake in the meantime; however the awareness club will not change the brochure, but will add a note (which has not been added up to this day of writing).

I am not sure whether this brochure will be very successful. I was more impressed by the Belgian game Become Webwise, in French and Dutch. The game is available on the 100 per cent safe site Kid City (supported by the local telecom incumbent Belgacom). Kid City cooperates in this game with Action Innocence. Aim of this project is to contribute to integrity and dignity of children on internet. The game challenges kids and parents about their knowledge of internet. The objective of the game is to get kids and parents to talk about the positive and negative sides of internet. The game has a back-up by way of help desk for children.

Blog Posting Number: 1025

Tags: safe internet

BPN 1017 UPC NL starts printed mag to sell digital TV

This afternoon there was a mail shot from UPC under the slogan: Here you are, the magazine which is all about the pleasure of watching TV! It was a letter and a glossy, one big ad for digital television, larded with superficial interviews with Dutch TV VIPs. It is one big attempt to sell digital TV. It is clear that UPC has a problem in promoting digital television. Of course UPC subscribers do not understand what digital TV offers them; now and in the future. The letter continues: and why UPC is still the best choice for years; not only for digital television, but also for telephony and internet.

UPC started a big campaign to introduce digital television in 2005. It planned to connect 1.000 subscribers a week. The goal was to have 2 million subscribers at a cost of 300 million euro conversion from analogue to digital. (Update 28/02/2008: At the end of 2007 UPC had 550.300 digital TV connections; the subscriber population grew in 2007 with 10 per cent; UPC expects in 2008 a stabilisation). But UPC is not the only operator to offer digital TV in the Netherlands. UPC has a regional cable monopoly as has @Home, Casema and Orange. It has competition from digital TV through ADSL from KPN and its affiliates Het Net, Telfort, Planet and XS4ALL as well as from the Swedish operator Tele2 and the Telecom Italia brand Alice. It is clear that the campaign for 2 million connections of digital TV is not on schedule.

The letter continues after the introduction that UPC has invested to improve the cable network, which supposedly consists of 97 per cent of glass fibre. If this is true, then I still do not understand why the internet speeds are still so low and so expensive. When Alice offers a 20 Mbps speed on a copper wire at 30 euro and UPC offers a 20Mbps on a fibre glass connection after a cheap introduction rate of 30 euro at no less than 59, 95 euro. Ridiculous!

The glossy is there to convince me, the viewer, of an improvement of television viewing by watching digital television. (Funny thing is that the sender does not know whom he is talking to, addressing the printed glossy to Mr/Mrs). talking about personalising at conferences and not knowing the sex of the addressee. And apparently the printed magazine is not enough. For if you want to change to UPC Digital television you get the digital television service 3 months for free; after three months you pay 3,99 euro extra for the basic package. Of course UPC hopes that you will go for the special sports and movie channels. Mr Paul van Doorne, the Director Marketing of UPC (Regional, The Netherlands, Benelux or Inc.), wishes the viewers a lot of reading pleasure!

It is unbelievable how a company executes its marketing for a certain product, while it keeps up its basic service in such a sloppy way. Since three months the cable head-end box of our apartment building in Almere suffered a severe blow from a mowing machine. All the live wires are there to be seen and cut for anyone. In a telephone call to a UPC help desk employee promised to have the situation remedied as soon as possible. To this date the box is still lying open, baring the cables of 50 apartments. And this company is trying to convince me of digital TV with a printed glossy! Reliability and execution of a promise are the basic features of sound marketing, Mr Van Doorne. Forget the printed glossy!

Blog Posting Number: 1017

Tags: digital television

2008: Year of the fibre breakthrough

Amsterdam got its Christmas present from the European Commission. The municipality of Amsterdam was cleared from unfair state competition in the matter of the fibre project of the Cityring from the complainants the cable operator UPC and cable operators’ association VECAI (which changed its name to NLkabel recently). Amsterdam had never doubted the positive outcome of the EC investigation.


(c) 2007; Houthoff Buruma Solicitors

The Directorate General of Competition, headed by Ms Neelie Kroes, decided to start an investigation, acting on the complaints of UPC and VECAI. The municipality of Amsterdam had invested 6 million euro as equity with private companies in the passive level the proposed Cityring. Amsterdam did the investment in order keep control on an open fibre network. UPC have been closed out of the bidding process early, lodge a complaint of unfair state funding with the DG Competition. The DG started a voluntary and non obligatory investigation. A lot of documents went back and forth, confidential documents had to be cleaned up due to corporate details and draft documents were held up due to court cases. Even a case before the Court in Luxemburg was under consideration. In May the DG Competition was ready to start the final leg of the investigation, which ended in December with a ruling favourable for the municipality of Amsterdam.

The DG Competition looked at three items:
a. does the municipality act as a market conform investor, in other words does the municipality not support the foundation of a company unfairly with state support;
b. Is fibre to the home a achievable business case;
c. And some specific sub-items.

Already in December 2006 UPC and VECAI had the draft text, clearing the municipality of unfair support. UPC decently kept its mouth shut as the investigation was not yet final. Remained left the business case and the specific sub-items. Helped by the timeframe, the business case was not an item any longer either. In the Netherlands FttH initiatives mushroomed: Nuenen, Hillegom, Geldrop-Mierlo, Deventer, Enschede as well as abroad. Besides the projects various companies competed for these projects; in the Netherlands notably Reggeborgh and KPN. Last October, the Amsterdam municipal project manager Dirk van der Woude has published an updated list on Dutch and foreign FttH projects. The last sub-items have been cleared by the municipality of Amsterdam successfully.

So Amsterdam can continue its project to bring fibre to more than 450.000 Amsterdam homes. In the meantime more initiatives spring up, besides the already mentioned one. As ambitious as the Amsterdam Cityring is the living lab Almere project where 70.000 will be connected to fibre before 2010.

From the updated list it is clear that 2008 will be the year of the fibre breakthrough in The Netherlands. Not in the list is yet the Fibre to the Farm (FttF) project, a project where rural areas will be linked up to urban networks. Difficult areas will be bridged by leading cables through trees in woody areas; besides farmers will dig the ducts with tractors instead of calling in a cable laying contractor with urban experience. Also internationally fibre will break through with large urban areas in 2008. Fibre will no longer be in a pilot phase, but will be in a project phase.

Cable projects will have to prove in 2008 that they can reach the same type of speeds by cable. So far UPC has demonstrated speeds of up to 100Mbps, but has not started marketing it. It looks like UPC and other cable operators will have to stick to lower rates over against fibre operators. I look forward to the battlefield in Almere.

The usage of higher speeds will have consequences for content. We have seen the usage of video grow fast. Also the social networks have grown with movies and twitter-like services. But with higher speeds, services will have more freedom to compose services with live video. This will for example be a challenge for newspapers and broadcast services. But it will also have consequences for bloggers. So far the majority of bloggers have worked with text. But I would not be surprised, when we see more bloggers go into audio or video interview blogs.

Blog Posting Number: 964

Tags: FttH, FttF, Fibre to the Home, Fibre to the Farm, Fibre to the Home, Fibre to the Farm, FttH, FttF

Almere: a broadband living lab

I had written about Almere and glass fibre already. But now the big news in my hometown is offcial: Almere (skyline of thecity on the photograph) will be the first big city with fibre to every home. On October 3, 2007 the telecom incumbent KPN and the cable construction company Reggefiber. KPN will offer the services on the fibre net and Reggefiber will lay the fibre cables. By 2010 all the households and companies will have a fibre connection at their disposal.

Almere is a 30 years old city, a new town, with 180.000 inhabitants and 70.000 households and it is still growing at great speed. The fibre will be a standard facility in all the new homes that will be built in Almere and in all the exiting districts starting this autumn with the Almere Harbour area. After that district by district will be canvassed. The inhabitants will get tv, radio, internet and telephony and get new facilities like video communication with care institutions.

This fibre project has been initiated and executed by the Almere Fiber Consortium, which consists of the municipality, three housing corporations, Reggefiber and a local entrepreneur D. Zantinge. The crucial question in this type of projects is the financing. Municipalities are allowed to invest under very strict rules; for example the municipality of Amsterdam has invested in its fibre project and is now under scrutiny of the European Commission. But the fray for the Almere fibre project will be born by Reggefiber.

The city of Almere wants to be the first digital city in the Netherlands. The objective of the project is promote innovative developments which will strengthen the economy, education, care, living and culture. Having a fibre infrastructure will make the city more attractive for companies in many ways. Employees can work from home. But also network companies can have a direct backbone connection from the Almere Interchange. This was already reason enough for the academic computing centre Sara to come to Almere. Almere ’s fibre network will be an open network. Any supplier of internet services can deliver its services in a level playing field to consumers and companies. In this way Almere will become a living lab in which internet and communication services can be developed and trialled.

The municipality Almere has already a super fast fibre network in use since the summer of 2006; this connects all municipal buildings, schools and social institutions. Also the industrial areas have been connected to the network. Besides these connections a pilot has been executed linking 1700 households and 500 companies to the network. With the experience of these smaller projects, Almere can start its roll-out of the entire network.

I have not seen more details on the roll-out yet. So I do not know when our office will be connected to the network. But to tell you the truth, I can not wait. The speed will always be more than the present UPC speed of 8Mbps; despite the fact that UPC has shown a speed of 100Mbps on the cable, it has not changed its offer of speeds and tariffs. Perhaps for the time being, I still should change to Alice or Telfort (but I do not like their fair use clause) for an ADSL 20Mbps line at 30 euro, including fixed line telephone.

Blog Posting Number: 897

Tags: broadband

TI ISP Alice ready to seduce the Dutch consumer

After Italy, Germany and France, Telecom Italia is set to conquer 15 per cent of the Dutch consumer market with its ISP service Alice. With a sharp offer, combining internet and telecom, Alice has to seduce dissatisfied consumers. The service will be run by Bbned, a subsidiary of Telecom Italia.

Bbned is not new on the Dutch market. The company has so far worked in the business sector of the market and has built up a good reputation. It has been successful in selling DSL solutions and in acquiring various glass fibre projects in the Netherlands such as the Amsterdam Cityring and the Rotterdam Port Authority.

But now Bbned will also run the consumer ISP service Alice, a service already introduced in Italy, Germany and France. Bbned can rely for its internet services on its experience in the business sector and the recently acquired ISP InterNLnet, which will give second line assistance to the help desk. For the telecom services Alice will make use of the services of the Telecom Italia subsidiaries Pilmo en Talk4free.

Alice will compete with the other ISPs with very sharp tariffs and conditions. In fact Alice will have to win over the dissatisfied consumers of KPN, Tele2 and the cable companies; they are accused of being expensive, inflexible, unreasonable in agreements, incompetent as far as help desks go and providing a lousy service. A survey by TNS NIPO on behalf of Orange Broadband showed that the majority of the respondents had the feeling that they paid too much for internet (53 pct) and telephony (69 pct).

In the internet package the speed is remarkable. Alice offers one speed up to 20Mbps and does not have other speeds, usually lower speeds as the other ISPs do. In the package is also a free telecom service to all fixed line subscribers included. All this for 30 euro a month. Given the speed of internet access this is really sharp as for example KPN and UPC ask almost double for this speed in combination with a telephone service.

The offer is simple. Administratively, the user does not have a fixed time contract with Bbned; the user can change monthly. The user will pay one month ahead. Besides the standard package a foreign telecom package is available at 20 euro for limitless worldwide calling, except for some countries where there is a limit of 500 minutes. A modem, installed by a user, is delivered at 10 euro and an installation engineer is available for 70 euro.

Will Alice make it in the Netherlands?. I personally think so. The absence of a fixed time agreement, the speed of the internet connection and the monthly fee will be the USPs. Dissatisfaction will do the rest. Of course the offer will be a challenge for the incumbent telcom KPN, as it dominates the broadband market through various brands like XS4ALL, Tiscali and the Net, but is unwilling to increase the speed or lower the tariff. Also the cable companies will get a problem as they have a differentiation of speeds and tariffs. For a speed of 8Mbps a user will pay almost 50 euros; originally this tariff was for 9Mbps but UPC decreased the speed from 9 to 8 Mbps without informing the users by e-mail or snail mail.

Cable companies have even more the problem of triple play. If one of the media is not working properly, user will threaten the cable company to discontinue the subscription for television, telephone and internet. I spoke to a UPC subscriber last week, who had problems with the quality of the analogue transmission of the television stations. A discussion with the help desk did not do him much good. He was advised to get some other cable fixtures, this while his present fixtures were replaced by a UPC licensed engineer last December. Reason for the change of fixtures would be the digital ether broadcast Digitenne in Almere. But this transmission tower was already in operation when the UPC licensed engineer replaced the fixtures last December. Absolute incompetence at the UPC help desk. This type of missers is a market chance for Alice. Of course Alice does not have a triple play as it lacks a television package, but even with the initial costs of Alice and a subscription to Digitenne the user will save money in less than half year.

Alice light the fire!

Blog Posting Number: 843

Tags: triple play, ISP

Dutch digital TV market growing slowly

The number of digital TV connections in the Netherlands grew 5.9 percent to pass the 2 million mark during the first quarter, ending the period with 2.12 million subscribers.

In 2006 the number of Dutch households grew to 7.2 million. The number of total Dutch TV connections grew by 0.3 percent during the quarter to 7.026 million. Analogue TV is still dominant in the Netherlands with 4.91 million connections. Digital's share of the total TV market passed the 30 percent mark, according to Telecompaper's report on TV connections in the Netherlands, "Dutch Television Market Q1 2007".

The cable network operators continue to dominate the Dutch TV landscape, with a share of 87.7 percent of the entire TV market and a growing share of the digital TV market. Year-on-year, cable saw its digital TV market share grow by more than 20 points, to 69 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2007. UPC saw its share of the total TV market and digital TV market fall to 24.1 percent and 31.1 percent respectively, but it is still the largest TV provider with 2.198 million customers on 31 March 2007. The penetration of digital TV on the Dutch cable networks passed the 20 percent mark during the first quarter of 2007, ending the period with 20.3 percent.

The quarterly growth for the second quarter is expected to be around 10 percent, driven by cable network operators Delta and Casema, because they lag behind in digital penetration.

Besides the cable there is IPTV being sold in the Netherlands by Tele2. However competition is heating up from the autumn onwards when the incumbent telco KPN will launch the IPTV service Mine. This launch of this service has been announced several times, but was regularly postponed due to technical problems. The launch will give a new impulse and will lead to an estimated 2.6 million digital TV customers (cable and IPTV) at the end of 2007.

Blog Posting Number: 807

Tags: digital telvision, cable

The municipality of Brunssum in the South of The Netherlands (see coloured area in black oval) is one of the last of the cable Mohicans. It will offer its cable network for sale. Presently the network has 13.500 connections. Reason for the sale it the high costs of upgrading for the network.

Brunssum is one of the last municipalities in The Netherlands which still possesses and operates its own cable network. In the past fifteen years almost all municipal networks have been sold to regional operators like UPC, Casema and Kabelcom/aHome/Essent. These companies have been able to invest in triple play (television, telecom and internet). The present network of Brunssum badly needs an upgrade, if it wants to compete with these regional cable operators. The local network can not offer digital television. So the municipality will put it on the market.

This has been the trend for the last fifteen years and in this way regional operators are growing by threading municipalities in particular regions. This is the way UPC, Casema and Essent grew into cable operators with millions of users. The real high time was at the end of the nineties when regional cable operators paid 2250 guilders (roughly 1125 euro) or more for every subscriber. Brunssum expects revenues from the sale of the network for 10 million euro; this would be 740 euro per subscriber. The regional cable operator could earn that sum back easily – so was the reasoning – by offering digital TV, telecom facilities, internet and security services. But these days cable operators have to compete with new glass fibre consortia. So UPC is fighting the Citynet consortium in Amsterdam and in Nuenen UPC lost the majority of its subscribers to Ons Net, the private glass fibre consortium.

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More than 1 million households in The Netherlands have a television subscription combined with an internet subscription. Source: Vecai

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It is interesting to see that many of the fibre glass projects are also initiated by the municipalities. In the past they ran a cable network to avoid forests of antennas. Now they get involved in high speed networks for their own municipal services, education and hospitals; but their involvement is not that of an operator. They take shares in the private companies in order to have a say about the connections to their services and insure that the inhabitants get the best network possible. I guess that once glass fibre networks are common, up and running, that municipalities will sell their shares again to invest in other citizens’ services.

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Talking about internet by cable. I have a UPC subscription to Internet, Chello Classic, a package of 8 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. That package is no longer sold; they never informed me by letter or e-mail. But what you get back or as compensation is not told on the webpage. On the webpage they guarantee the same optimal service, but lately they have been fiddling with the speed, as you can see from last month’s speed recordings through Speedtest.

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Blog Posting Number: 775

Tags: cable, glass fibre