The Netherlands’ most popular broadband provider lost customers for a fourth consecutive quarter in Q2 2021.
Research from Telecompaper reveals incumbent KPN only grew following the acquisition of smaller rival Oxxio. This leaves T-Mobile as the only ISP in the top three to add broadband customers on an organic basis in the period.
“With almost 97 per cent of households in the Netherlands already subscribed to broadband, there is not much room for growth left,” said Kamiel Albrecht, Telecompaper senior research analyst for the fixed market. “It’s not surprising KPN is turning to acquisitions again to supplement growth. For Ziggo there is less opportunity for takeovers, as most other cable operators on the Dutch market are converting to fibre.”
Ziggo lost 6,500 broadband subscribers in the three months, less than in Q1 but a reversal of the growth of 6,000 customers in Q2 2020. Growth within its business segment was not enough to compensate for losses among domestic consumers.
The Liberty Global-Vodafone company ended June with 3.35 million broadband subscribers, followed by KPN on 3.14 million, though its growth was entirely due to the takeover of Oxxio, which added 22,000 broadband customers, offsetting an organic decline of 10,000 subscribers at KPN itself.
T-Mobile was the leading beneficiary in fixed broadband in Q2 2021, adding 15,000 new subscribers. The growth was slightly better than 12,000 new subscribers added in both Q1 2021 and Q2 2020.
