The Netherlands is on its way to achieving the goals set by Digital Agenda for Europe, according to the latest report by GlobalData.
The findings of the Netherlands Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report, show that the Netherlands’ fixed broadband penetration of the population is likely to reach 48 per cent by 2024.
In July 2018, the Netherlands updated its national broadband strategy with the connectivity national plan. It aims to cover the entire population with 100Mb/s fixed broadband by 2023, and to provide a ‘vast majority’ of people with access to 1Gb/s fixed broadband in the same timeframe.
According to the report, the fixed broadband coverage reached 100 per cent of households in 2018, while the 100Mb/s or higher broadband coverage reached 97 per cent of households. In order to become a Gigabit society, the country is focusing on fibre deployment.
In 2019, network operator KPN connected 120,000 homes and the telco is planning to accelerate the roll-out of fibre to reach a target of one million additional fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) passes by the end of 2021. KPN is also close to finishing its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) rollout. In the meantime, T-Mobile Netherlands has partnered with Primevest Capital Partners, an investment company, to deliver gigabit fibre-optic broadband to 100,000 households this year, focusing on locations with no fibre connections.
Sergej Gavrilov, telecoms market data and intelligence analyst at GlobalData, commented: ‘Compared to other countries in Western Europe, the Netherlands does not have a national fund for broadband development. Local and regional authorities are responsible for financing the projects in case of insufficient private investments. The national government, on the other hand, is facilitating infrastructure development through knowledge sharing and best practices, for example, through the Broadband Expertise Platform website. In line with Netherlands’ fixed broadband strategy and telcos’ network expansions, fixed broadband lines are expected to reach 8.6 million by 2024 with FTTH/B lines surpassing the 2.3 million mark by the end of the forecast period.’
