Dutch telecoms provider Tele 2 and cabler Ziggo have signed the first third-party reseller agreement for the analogue cable product, as required by the Open Cable ruling.
Under the deal, Tele 2 will be able to sell access to analogue basic cable to its telephony, internet access and IPTV customers. Tele 2 will pay a monthly fee of €8.46 for each subscriber it sells.
The agreement follows the Open Cable ruling by Dutch telecoms regulator OPTA requiring the two largest operators in the country, Ziggo and UPC, to allow third parties to resell their analogue cable product.
However, Tele 2 still has to clear some hurdles before it can actually deliver the product to its customers; this includes carriage agreements with all the channels that are part of the analogue basic tier. Also “some operational and legal issues” between Ziggo and Tele 2 need to be cleared.
A number of other parties are also looking to sell analogue cable to their customers including Deutsche Telekom’s Dutch ISP Online, and newcomers YouCa and Your.TV.
