Dutch incumbent telecoms operator KPN told RTL Nieuws Saturday, that it plans to discontinue its metered dial-up Internet access service(s), sometime this year.
KPN and its ISPs still have approximately 900,000 dial-up subscribers, however according to the telco many of those are either no longer using the service or using dial-up only sporadically. The number of subscribers is declining rapidly, KPN added.
If the number of users/subscribers drops below an unspecified level, KPN says it will no longer be able to guarantee the quality of its dial-up network.
KPN has acquired a large number of independent broadband providers over the past two years. Consolidating the broadband Internet access/ADSL market. KPN is now the largest broadband access provider in the Netherlands.
Update:
KPN provided a bit more detail today, the number of (active) subscribers has shown a serious decline, and the year end ’06 figure is expected to be less than 480,000 subscriber lines.
Subscribers to Het Net and Planet Internet dial-up services will be made an offer to upgrade to the Het Net and Planet ADSL services at a simillar price as their current dial-up subscription. Further details are expect to be presented next week (February 6) at KPN’s full year ’06 results presentation.