The Dutch government wants to force cable operators and IPTV providers to offer consumers a free choice of decoders, modems and routers.
Mona Keijzer, Secretary of Economic Affairs, has said that the intention of the government is to give consumers the choice of buying their own equipment, as is already the case of people who are subscribing to fixed and mobile telephony services.
Keijzer said that such devices are part of the personal home network and consumers should be free to choose their own hardware.
The move will certainly meet with resistance from the operators, as a lot of the equipment is geared towards their services, e.g. Ziggo offer free wi-fi spots on their routers, while it heavily invested in the Horizon TV services, which are only accessible with the correct hardware.
At the moment, only DTH providers Canal Digitaal, part o+f the M7 Group, and newcomer Joyne offer consumers a choice of getting a dedicated satellite receiver or buy equipment that comes with a CI+ slot.
In parts of the Ziggo cable network footprint, consumers are also able to use their own set-top box or (smart) Tv set, as long as it has a CI+ slot.
