The Netherlands’ KPN has publicised the official start of its previously-announced accelerated fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) expansion project, kicking off in Noord-Oost Zwolle, Helvoirt, Spijkerkwartier in Arnhem and De Biezen district in Dongen. Users are expected to receive services over the new connections in Zwolle from April 2019. Currently, KPN’s FTTH network passes around 30% of households in the Netherlands, or more than 2.3 million premises, and it intends to increase this footprint to around 3.3 million or more than 40% of homes by the end of 2021. In the course of this year, KPN aims to connect an average of 6,500 households per week to FTTH (i.e. covering roughly an additional 340,000 premises in twelve months).
The KPN NetwerkNL division is responsible for the construction and management of the FTTH network, deployed on an open access basis enabling other providers to offer retail services over the infrastructure alongside KPN.
In addition to the FTTH rollout, in 2019 KPN says it will complete its programme of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) deployment – covering a further 500,000 households.