Fiber optic network of KPN and APG will be open to other providers as of October 1 – IT Pro – News

Glaspoort, the joint venture of KPN and APG, will start on October 1 with the Wholesale Broadband Access for its fiber network. From then on, other parties can also order fiber optic connections. APG is the pension provider of the Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds.

Glaspoort writes that it offers wholesale access on its open fiber network at speeds of 100Mbit/s to a maximum of 1Gbit/s. The company says that there is now a ‘footprint’ of 30,000 connections. That is still a modest number, but Glaspoort ultimately wants to connect a million households and companies to its own network.

During the announcement of the joint venture’s inception earlier this year, the two parties indicated that the initiative should lead to an accelerated roll-out of more than 900,000 connections. Glaspoort, and therefore the collaboration with APG, should provide 700,000 households and 200,000 companies with fiber faster than would otherwise have been the case. This involves an investment of more than 1 billion euros. KPN and APG later discussed a extended range of 750,000 households and 225,000 companies.

This year at least 70,000 fiber optic connections should be realized. The idea is that the more than 700,000 households will have a fiber optic connection as a replacement for copper by the end of 2026. This concerns, for example, villages such as Ankeveen, Grou and Zuidoostbeemster.

The partnership between KPN and APG was concluded in May approved by the ACM. KPN’s competitors were critical and concerned about the collaboration. However, the regulator stated that the cooperation between KPN and APG ‘will not reduce competition in the construction and management of fiber optic networks in the Netherlands’. The ACM also found it positive that the network is also being opened up to other providers; KPN will be the main tenant of the network.

–