ACM Telecom Monitor for Q4 2021: approximately 1 million households without television plan

Approximately one million households in the Netherlands do not have a television plan. The number of television plans has slowly but steadily decreased since 2014, and, in late 2021, dropped to 7.3 million. These are some of the conclusions of the most recent Telecom Monitor of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).

The number of television plans had been steady for years until early 2014. In early 2014, there were 7.7 million television plans in the Netherlands. At the time, there were 7.6 million households in the Netherlands, according to Statistics Netherlands. That number has risen to 8.1 million today. Of these 8.1 million households, approximately 1 million do not have a television plan, because a share of the aforementioned 7.3 million plans in late 2021 were for business customers.

Mobile

In 2021, the number of mobile phone plans went up from 22.3 million to 23.5 million. That number does not include the mobile connections of so-called smart devices, which exchange information over the internet, such as smoke detectors, alarm systems, and smart energy meters. Last year, that number went up from 7.9 million to 9 million.

Data consumption last year was approximately 1.3 billion GB, which is almost 35 percent higher than in 2020. The number of voice minutes went up almost 15 percent to 50 billion. On the other hand, the number of text messages dropped almost 10 percent to just under 2.5 billion.

The market shares of mobile operators have remained unchanged. KPN and T-Mobile each have a market share between 25 to 30 percent, followed by VodafoneZiggo with a market share between 20 to 25 percent. Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) have a combined market share between 10 to 15 percent.

Fixed telephony

In the fourth quarter of 2021, the number of voice minutes over landlines was 1.6 billion. Of these 1.6 billion voice minutes, 137 million voice minutes were consumed using traditional telephony (ISDN and PSTN), while 1.51 billion using Voice over Broadband (VoB, telephony using a broadband connection). The number of voice minutes has thus dropped 9 percent compared with the third quarter, and is 35 percent lower than the peak of 2.54 billion voice minutes in the third quarter of 2020. At the time, an extended period of steady decline was interrupted for two consecutive quarters, which saw an increase in the number of voice minutes, around the time when the first lockdown measures were introduced.

Broadband

In the fourth quarter of 2021, new fiber-optic connections were installed in 265,000 households. Over 4.53 million households now have fiber-optic cables running into their homes. Of those households, 1.89 million also have broadband plans using fiber-optic, which is 80,000 more than in the previous quarter. The number of broadband plans using copper connections decreased by 31,000 to 2.23 million, and the number of broadband plans using cable decreased by 11,000 to 3.47 million.

KPN and VodafoneZiggo remained the largest broadband providers with market shares between 35 and 45 percent. T-Mobile’s market share in the fourth quarter was between 5 and 10 percent, and Delta Fiber’s market share was between 0 and 5 percent.

About the Telecom Monitor

Each quarter, ACM publishes the market figures for the telecommunication sector in its Telecom Monitor. Based on data from the most important market participants in the telecom industry, the Telecom Monitor gives an overview of the trends and developments in mobile services, fixed telephony, broadband, television, business network services, and bundles.