Tuesday, June 06, 2006

OBSERVATION://KPN's stealth advance in the broadband market

KPN is buying Demon Internet (70k subs) from Thus for EUR 69m.

This is ISP #7 falling into the hands of the incumbent. I count some 400k subs, or 25% of the current 1.66m BB subs. No immediate reason for OPTA (regulator) to take action, as KPN's BB market share is still just 37.9% (or 39.5% including Demon).

Still, there are some relevant developments:
  • BBned is for sale and KPN is interested.
  • Also, Tiscali could at some point quit the market. Vodafone wants to enter the market, but prefers an infrastructure-light approach. Vodafone and Tiscali do have geographic overlap. What will T-Mobile NL do?
  • KPN also bought Enertel, but without Enertel Wireless (now Worldmax). Similarly, Iskon may have to drop its WiMAX license now that T-HT takes over the company. And Telefonica was not allowed to buy Iberbanda. In other words, WiMAX is a no-go area for many PTT's (but not all).
  • Casema and Kabelcom are for sale. Will the regulator allow UPC (Liberty Global) to expand further? Maybe Cogeco is interested!

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