THE HAGUE, 23/03/07 - The Dutch broadband market grew by 21.5 percent in 2006. The number of connections increased to 5.042 million, compared with 4.15 million on 31 December 2005, according to Telecompaper.nl.

The broadband penetration per household increased to 70.8 percent on 31 December 2006 versus 58.5 percent a year earlier. Penetration per 100 inhabitants in the same period increased to 30.9 percent from 25.5 percent.

Growth slowed in the fourth quarter to 4.7 percent. Telecompaper estimates that the Dutch broadband market will grow at an average of 3 percent per quarter and will end 2007 with around 5.6 million connections.

"Cable operators had a bad fourth quarter with only 59,300 net additions, which caused them to end the year just shy of two million broadband customers. ADSL providers added 165,000 customers during the fourth quarter, ending the year with more than 3 million customers," reported Telecompaper.

In the full year, KPN's share on the broadband market grew to 40.5 percent. This was driven by its Direct ADSL brand, which includes InternetPlusBellen (KPN's VoIP service) and became the sixth largest broadband provider in the Netherlands with 476,000 customers. KPN's AtHome remained the largest broadband provider, with a total of 639,900 users.