21
June
2021
|
08:00
Europe/Amsterdam

Three millionth fiber optic connection at KPN a fact

  • Almost half of all Dutch households (3.9 million) have a fiber connection, more than 75% of them via KPN
  • Every week, KPN connects around 9,000 households to the fiber network
  • Over three million more will be added by KPN and Glaspoort before the end of 2026

Thanks in part to KPN, nearly half of all Dutch households are connected to fiber and therefore have access to superfast internet. KPN is installing fiber at record pace. Currently, the company is connecting more than 9,000 homes per week. That’s 1,800 per day, 225 per hour and almost four per minute. A house in Eikenlaan in Zwolle recently became the three millionth home to be connected to the KPN fiber network. At that pace, almost everyone in the Netherlands will have a fiber connection in 2026.

A meaningful moment to celebrate – and then we get cracking again
Joost Farwerck, CEO of KPN about the three millionth connection: “A fantastic and meaningful moment to celebrate – and then we get cracking again. Rolling out fiber is a major operation, which we can carry out thanks to the close cooperation with other parties. So I want to thank everyone who has contributed towards reaching this milestone. This of course means our customers, employees, contractors and subcontractors, but also municipalities, which play an important role in the speedy and efficient rollout, with the minimum nuisance for residents. Not forgetting our wholesale customers, who offer their services via our open networks and ensure that the consumer has the greatest possible choice. KPN is on track with the implementation of our ambitious strategy. I’m proud that this is making a substantial contribution to the digitization of the Netherlands. Because fiber is the future.”

Rollout being speeded up
KPN is currently rolling out fiber in more than 100 areas. Last week, the 200,000th connection of the year was made and the rate of installation of fiber is being speeded up. In the time ahead KPN plans to connect a further 2.5 million homes to fiber. And thanks to the recently launched fiber company Glaspoort, many connections will be made in the next five years in around 1000 villages, small settlements and business parks. KPN is replacing its copper network with fiber. Eventually, once the fiber network has been laid, the copper network will be taken out of service. KPN customers can switch to fiber for the same price and they can purchase higher speeds if they wish.

The major benefits are the download and upload speeds, stability and security
The main benefits of fiber are the speed, the stability and the security. Both incoming and outgoing. This means that you enjoy high quality when working from home, gaming and streaming your favorite films, even at the basic speed of 100 MB. Higher speeds provide an even better experience. KPN believes it is only a question of time before people need higher speeds because of new applications that will be available in the near future, such as virtual and augmented reality. KPN has already trialed 8.5 Gigabit successfully in a residential district in Amersfoort. Along with the totally updated KPN 5G mobile network, the fiber network is a thoroughly modern and powerful network on which the Netherlands can continue building until well into the 21st century.

The future began in the town of Nuenen
In 2004, the town of Nuenen in Noord-Brabant – where Vincent van Gogh painted his masterpiece The Potato Eaters in 1885 – was far ahead of its time as the first Dutch municipality to be connected to this modern internet network. That set the tone: many more were to follow. Ten years later, in 2014, there were more than two million fiber connections in the Netherlands. Between 2014 and 2018 KPN shifted the focus from fiber to the home (FTTH) to fiber to the 10,000 street cabinets spread across the Netherlands (FTTC). In combination with the copper network upgrade (Vectoring, Pairbonding, Vplus) between the street cabinet and the home, large parts of the Netherlands were able to benefit straight away from the higher internet speeds on the KPN network. The FTTC operation has now been completed and since 2018 KPN has ramped up the rollout of fiber to the home (FTTH) by replacing the final section of the fixed KPN network – the part between the street cabinet and the home – with fiber.