Glaspoort is connecting another 170,000 addresses in small Dutch villages and kernels to fiber at an accelerated pace. This was announced today by Glaspoort, the joint venture between pension administrator APG and telecom provider KPN. The expansion of Glaspoort's scope will involve an additional investment of 85 million euros.
In March of this year, it was announced that KPN and APG - on behalf of its pension fund client ABP - were jointly investing 1 billion euros to connect nearly 900,000 households and businesses in small towns and more remote areas to fiber before 2026. To this end, the Glaspoort joint venture was established and launched last summer. At that time, the mandate of Glaspoort was also expanded by an additional 70,000 addresses. Now an additional 170,000 connections will be added, bringing the scope of the roll-out to almost 1.15 million Dutch addresses by 2026.
The further acceleration of the rollout involves an investment - by APG, on behalf of pension fund customer ABP - of 85 million.
APG and KPN acknowledge the importance of access to reliable and secure internet. Examples are the recent developments around Covid and the ongoing work-from-home advice. In addition, fiber usage is more energy efficient than copper and therefore contributes positively to the energy transition.
The collaboration with ABP will enable the roll-out of fiber in more remote areas to be accelerated. This should enable nearly 80% of addresses in the Netherlands to have access to high-speed fiber by 2026.
Glaspoort has an open-access network strategy. This means that the network is also accessible to operators other than KPN. End users are therefore able to select a telecom operator of their choice. This promotes competition and innovation in the Netherlands.