The Dutch fixed telephony market grew by 0.5 percent during the first quarter to end March, with 6.27 million mass market (consumer & SOHO) lines, according to Telecompaper’s latest Dutch Fixed Telephony Market report. The quarterly growth was driven by VoIP via DSL which gained 1.3 percent more customers to end Q1 2015 with more than 2 million subscribers.
At the same VoIP via fibre grew 6.9 percent, as DSL/fibre providers like KPN and its brands Telfort, XS4ALL as well as Vodafone continued their extensive marketing campaigns for triple play services. As cable VoIP also grew during the quarter with 0.5 percent, the total VoIP market increased by 1.5 percent to 5.38 million lines, off-setting the decrease in traditional phone lines caused by 6.7 percent less PSTN/ISDN lines and a 3.7 percent drop in WLR connections.
The cable operators have started to lose market share, confirming Telecompaper’s analysis that they have reached a saturation point in terms of how many more fixed lines they can sell. The decision by cable operator Ziggo to stop offering free on-net calls in 2014 shows it is more focused on growing revenues than the number of connections, according to the researchers. A similar saturation effect is expected to occur for fibre starting in 2015 and DSL starting in 2017. As a result, Telecompaper expects the overall fixed telephony market to show a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of -0.7 percent over the five-year period 2015-2019.
For the first quarter, the fixed telephony revenues amounted EUR 305 million, decreasing by 3.5 percent during the quarter. The retail revenues include access and usage revenues from PSTN/ISDN/CPS/WLR services as well as VoIP services via cable, DSL and FTTH networks. It excludes revenues from unmanaged VoIP services like Skype, as well as installation fees and equipment sales.
