KPN responds to poor FttH uptake
KPN is one of the few incumbents to pursue FttH, though the decision to go full-steam for FttH rather than the cheaper solution of upgrading its copper network (FttC with VDSL2 in the last mile) took some time.
Nevertheless, despite concentrating on FttH rather than expanding FttC, the company is still struggling to convince most customers to sign up.
This is partly due to poor marketing. KPN has targeted many customers in its roll-out areas based on poor demographic profiling, aiming to attract those who would be less interested in services delivered or less able to afford them. The pricing for bundled packages was also set too high, which has dissuaded many consumers from switching from their existing DSL service. As a result, only about 9% of customers passed by FttH sign up for the service.
To address these poor figures, KPN has set in train a number of measures to reduce its pricing and improve the way it targets and sells to customers. Yet its VDSL offers have also been ramped up with better data download capabilities, so narrowing the gap between what customers can expect from the competing infrastructures.
The company at least needs to convince customers that switching from copper to fibre is seamless, that there are real benefits for households’ use of IP-delivered services, and that it will not cost them more.
For more information on the Dutch broadband market, see:
- Netherlands – Fibre-to-the-Home Developments;
- Netherlands – Broadband Market – Overview, Statistics and Forecasts;
- Netherlands -KPN and fibre strategies.
We invite your comments: Please click here to comment
Tagged in: FttH, KPN, Netherlands
