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

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

Two speed broadband in Europe

Although some European countries lead the world in broadband access, there is a growing gap between the best and worst performers, according to a report presented by the European Commission today. Lack of competition and regulatory weaknesses are cited as the main obstacles to broadband growth. The Commission will address these shortcomings in its proposals to reform the EU's Telecom Rules on 13 November.

On 1 July 2007 there were over 90 million fixed broadband lines in the 27 EU Member States of which some 20 million lines, excluding Bulgaria and Romania, have been added since July 2006, an increase of 28.7%. Proportionally growth was highest in Denmark (7.7 lines per 100 inhabitants), Luxembourg (7.1 per 100) and Ireland (6.7 per 100).

Broadband growth has continued in the last year throughout the EU, as businesses and citizens continue to benefit from the digital revolution (see IP/07/582). Average penetration (number of subscribers per population) has grown from 14.9% to 18.2%, despite the relatively modest penetration rates in some Member States. In the best performing countries – Denmark (37.2%) and The Netherlands (33.1%) – roughly one third or more of the population has broadband, with a substantial proportion using an infrastructure other than the incumbents.

According to data published by the Commission, the gap between the strongest (Denmark 37.2%) and weakest broadband performers (Bulgaria 5.7%) is widening slightly, with now more than a 30 percentage point difference. The main reasons for this are the lack of significant alternative infrastructures in some Member States or the need for a more consistent and speedy application of existing remedies (see IP/07/435). More than the already proposed enforcement needs to be done to stimulate investment so there is more consistent growth across the EU. Effective competition on the broadband markets in order to achieve "broadband for all" is therefore a key priority of the reform of the EU Telecom Rules that the Commission will propose next month.

KPN feels competition from Alice
Talking about broadband and the Netherlands. When the ADSL 20Mb service Alice was introduced, KPN employees sang the song Who the f*ck is Alice. But after two months KPN feels the bite and has come up with a competitor: Telfort. And I hear you say: But Telfort is a KPN brand for mobile telephony and not for fixed lines. When KPN bought Telfort it paid almost one billion euro; now this money will have to be earned back. So from this month onwards Telfort is no longer an exclusive mobile brand. It offers now also fixed lines and voip.

Besides its mobile offer, Telfort now offers two products: internet with a speed of maximally 20MBps for 19,95 euro a month and a voip subscription for 9,95 euro a month with free phoning to all fixed line numbers in the Netherlands. Telfort guarantees no price increases after one year or extra costs for the use of the fixed line. There is one catch: for Telfort internet and phoning a fair use policy is in force.

In the press release Telfort claims to bring clarity in the intransparent ADSL forest. In a recent market research survey the Dutch express that the internet market is intransparent, complex and full of misleading internet offers. This is a funny statement as Telfort mother KPN has a market share of 53 percent built up with a series of brands (XS4ALL, Speedlinq, 12Move, Tiscali and Planet, formerly Planet Internet) and its most expensive 20Mbps subscription plus voip subscripting is 92.50 euro. Bewilderment all over KPN brand portfolio.

Blog Posting Number: 896

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