The total number of broadband connections in the Netherlands stood at 6.43 million at 31 March 2012, up 48,500 or 0.8% in the quarter, according to Telecompaper. The online journal noted that a 2.1% quarter-on-quarter fall in DSL subscriptions to 3.21 million was offset by 2.8% expansion in the cable broadband base to 2.86 million. Further, the number of fibre-to-the-home/fibre-to-the-building (FTTH/FTTB) connections grew by 13% in January-March to around 353,650 lines, giving the platform a 5.5% market share.
As at 31 March, former monopoly KPN Telecom and its various retail brandings – including XS4ALL and Telfort – continued to dominate the high speed internet access market, with a 39.1% share of all users. However, the newspaper notes that this constituted a 0.8 percentage points fall on the same time in 2011. Meanwhile, the nation’s leading cableco, Ziggo, took second spot with a market share of 26.4% (1.697 million), ahead of Liberty Global’s UPC Nederland unit with roughly 15% (984,900).
The Dutch broadband market is forecast to grow by 2.9% over the full year 2012, driven by demand for cable and FTTx lines. Fibre-optic take-up is expected to expand by 35% for the year, while cable modem expansion is forecast at a more modest 6%.