Fibre grows fast in The Netherlands, despite fierce competition

The deployment of fibreglass networks increases in speed in The Netherlands. In 50 municipalities, people can connect to the Internet through fibre. 5,7 per cent of Dutch households has an FttH-connection, of which almost half makes use: the number of households with a subscription to fibre services is 2,4%. The yearly Telecompaper report on fibre deployment predicts that at the end of this year, the number of municipalities in which fibre is available, will have risen to 70. Furthermore, the authors expect that in 2014, 19% of households will access the Internet through a fibre line.

The fast growth is remarkable, as we are still in the midst of an economic crisis and the competition, Internet through phone lines or through the cable, is developing quickly too. Thanks to VDSL 2 (phone line) and Docsis 3.0 (cable), the alternatives to fibre offer increasingly fast connections. And the end is not is sight with the “traditional” networks. Bell Labs recently revealed that DSL lines can transfer data with a speed of 300 Mbps.

25 April 2010