The Dutch broadband market continued to grow in the second quarter, albeit at a slower pace than in the preceding two quarters, ending June 2016 with more than 7.24 million connections, according to the Dutch Broadband 2016 Q2 report from Telecompaper.
The quarterly growth of 48,000 connections was lower than the net additions in Q1 2016 and Q4 2015, but almost four times more than the 13,000 net additions in Q2 2015.
Fibre broadband continued to fuel the growth, with 4.1% more fibre connections in the quarter, and cable broadband also grew slightly. With over 3.3 million connections, cable remains the most popular way to access broadband in the Netherlands. Fibre grew to a market share of more than 14 percent, while DSL lost 0.3% during the quarter to end Q2 with less than 40% of broadband connections.
Ziggo, the largest cable operator in the Netherlands, improved its quarterly additions to double digits during the second quarter, ending the period with just over 3.1 million customers. Its market share decreased slightly though to 43.1%. Number two KPN (including its other brands such as Telfort, XS4all and Edutel) added 15,000 broadband customers during the second quarter, but lost 0.1% of market share.
The smaller operators are doing well, especially on fibre, and appear to be winning market share, according to Telecompaper. Their combined net additions were more than either KPN or Ziggo for a second quarter in a row in Q2. Their growth, supported by continued strong demand for fibre, is expected to help the overall broadband market expand by 2.5% in 2016. For the period 2016-2020, Telecompaper expects a CAGR of 1.9% per year in the number of broadband connections.
Telecompaper estimates the Dutch broadband market was worth over EUR 467 million in retail revenue in the second quarter of 2016. The revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of 1.4% over the five-year period 2016-2020.