ACM Telecom Monitor Q1 2021: considerably more fiber-optic rolled out

In the first quarter of 2021, the number of homes that are connected to a fiber-optic network went up by 200,000. With that increase, the growth of the past few years has continued forcefully. In 2020, a total of 500,000 homes were connected to a fiber-optic network, whereas in 2019, that figure was just 180,000. In total, approximately 3.9 million households (out of 8 million households) in the Netherlands are connected to a fiber-optic network. These are some of the conclusions in the Telecom Monitor of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).

Faster download speeds

Households increasingly opt for broadband connections with higher download speeds. For the first time ever, over half of all broadband connections have download speeds of over 100 Mbps. With a market share of 50 percent, broadband over cable, which, like fiber-optic, can achieve download speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s, continues to be the most used type of fast broadband. Fiber-optic and copper connections have market shares of 30 and 20 percent, respectively.

The Netherlands has a total of 7.5 million broadband connections. The number of households that opt for fiber-optic plans increased by 7 percent to 1.7 million. There are 3.5 million households with cable plans. That number has remained stable. Fewer people purchase broadband plans over KPN’s copper network, which has experienced a decrease of 3 percent. KPN has announced that, starting in 2023, it will phase out broadband, television and fixed telephony services over its copper network. This is connected to the rapid expansion of the fiber-optic network.

KPN and VodafoneZiggo continue to be the largest providers of broadband connections with market shares of 35 to 45 percent. In the first quarter of 2021, T-Mobile’s market share was between 5 and 10 percent, and that of Delta Fiber was between 0 and 5 percent.

Increase in mobile calls and data consumption

In the Netherlands, there are 22.3 million mobile connections. In early 2021, the number of mobile voice minutes increased by 6 percent to 13 billion minutes, and data consumption increased by 7 percent to 270 billion MB. The number of text messages continues to go down. In the first quarter, approximately 600,00 text messages were sent, which is a decrease of 6 percent.

About the Telecom Monitor

Each quarter, ACM publishes the market figures for the telecommunication sector in its Telecom Monitor. Based on data from the most important market participants in the telecom industry, the Telecom Monitor gives an overview of the trends and developments in mobile services, fixed telephony, broadband, television, business network services, and bundles.