In July 2018, the Netherlands updated its national broadband strategy with the connectivity national plan and is now on its way to achieving the goals of the Digital Agenda for Europe. The Netherlands plans to cover the entire population with 100Mbps fixed broadband by 2023 and aims to provide a ‘vast majority’ of people with access to 1Gbps fixed broadband in the same timeframe.

The company’s report, ‘Netherlands Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report’, reveals that the Netherlands’ fixed broadband penetration of the population will reach 48% by 2024.

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The Netherlands is close to delivering its targets. The fixed broadband coverage reached 100% of households in 2018, while the 100Mbps or higher broadband coverage reached 97% of households. In order to become a Gigabit society, the country is focusing on fiber deployment.

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 2019, KPN’s connected 120,000 homes. The telco is planning to accelerate the rollout of fiber in order 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 a gigabit fibre-optic broadband to 100,000 households in 2020, focusing on locations with no fiber connections.

Gavrilov concludes: “In line with Netherland’s 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.”