Half cheaper, twice as fast. And you can choose which services and TV channelsyou want to include. A nice message, thinks Taco Jelgersma, in times when theprices for everything are skyrocketing. However, VodafoneZiggo’s TV cable mustthen open up to competition. The monopoly watchdog ACM will soon make astatement about this.
Herman StilOctober 18, 202203:00
It is the invisible money guzzler. The Dutch pay gold to be able to use theinternet, Netflix and telephone at home. It seems as if there are more thanenough internet providers who happily tumble over each other with greatoffers, but in fact there are only two giants that dominate our fixed internettraffic: KPN for the telephone lines, VodafoneZiggo for the TV cable.
KPN’s telephone cables have traditionally been open to competitors, one of theachievements of the privatization of state-owned company PTT. However, the TVcable is still, like an old Soviet state, closed to any competitor.
It is true that many cable networks were set up by municipalities fifty yearsago, when commerce took care of these lucrative cables, those governments weremore than happy to sell their property for good money. For example, theAmsterdam KTA, set up by the municipality and the housing associations, passedfrom hand to hand as A2000 and later UPC.
Sometimes there were agreements about openness – for example, the local TVstation Salto had to be given a place in Amsterdam – and there are stillAsterix villages such as the municipality of Harderwijk where competition oncable is rampant, but in most cases market agreements went silently overboardin successive cable takeovers. .
Prices for internet are significantly higher here
And we are still paying the price for that. Literally, thinks internetentrepreneur Taco Jelgersma. Because KPN can determine the access price forthe competition itself to a certain extent and Ziggo can keep the cable all toitself, the prices for internet and TV here are significantly higher than inmost other European countries. “In Italy you pay 25 to 30 euros for a gigabitinternet with the largest provider. Here 60 euros.”
This is because KPN and VodafoneZiggo form a duopoly in the internet area,which controls 85 percent of the market. “As a result, we pay more forinternet here every year and get less for it every year.”
Look at the market for mobile web access, says Jelgersma, where competitionhas resulted in choice and price drops. “That is also possible with fixedinternet, but not as long as Ziggo is allowed to shield its cable.”
The Jelgersma’s could easily be dismissed as donquichots, were it not for thefact that father Peter Jelgersma is pretty much the godfather of cable TV. Inthe 1970s he was involved in the arrival of many local cable networks,including those in Amsterdam. In the eighties he set up Filmnet, the firstpay-TV channel in the Netherlands, and with Joop van den Ende he joined thecommercial channels TV10 (flopped) and Radio10 (successful). He harassed thecable industry with digital terrestrial TV via Digitenne, which he thenmanaged to sell to KPN for good money.
The accumulated capital is now invested by his son Taco in all kinds oftechnological investments and provides sufficient profit to continue thebattle for the cable network. But, he admits, that also has to do with thestubbornness of the Jelgersma’s. After all: why resign yourself to somethingso illogical?
Battle against telecom giants
Fifteen years ago, father and son founded Youca, from Your Cable – Jelgersmaadmits that a better name has yet to be invented. For the time being, Youca isprimarily a cost item, a vehicle for carrying out an endless stream ofprocedures. It has been a lost battle so far, against the telecom giants andagainst the regulators in The Hague and in Brussels. And if the Dutch monopolycracker ACM then draws a line through that duopoly and obliges both KPN andZiggo to open their networks, the administrative court will draw a linethrough it, as happened in 2020.
Politicians, in Amsterdam as well as in The Hague and Brussels, are anxiouslyaloof. “What do you want, if you are constantly advised that competition isvery bad for digital innovation. All introduced by the telecom lobby.”
He maintains that more competition would mean that the cable companies haveless money to install fiber optic cables into the houses, for example, so thatthe internet speeds cannot increase any further. A nonsensical argument,according to Jelgersma. “Why are so many investors, including pension fundABP, now diving into the installation of fiber optic cable?”
In his opinion, that glass is not necessary at all. “Can you imagine how longit will take for the whole of Amsterdam to be glazed? All those canals, allthose suburbs? While there is a fantastic ready-to-use network that can handlespeeds of up to 10 gigabits: the cable.”
Price halving
Jelgersma has now submitted a claim to ACM for cable access in Amsterdam. Hedeliberately limited himself, so that the supervisor can handle a somewhatmanageable file. “The whole of the Netherlands at once would have been toomuch.” But, he reveals, other cities will not be left behind with gains.
“Organisationally, everything is ready. The equipment, the organization, themarketing. We even have agreements in principle with Ziggo. We can startwithin six months of the verdict.” He assumes that a price cut in half willattract forty to fifty thousand of the more than 450,000 Amsterdam households.“And you’ll see Internet access prices going down everywhere.”
Because it concerns an ACM ruling, there is no case law. Other hijackers onthe coast will have to follow their own procedure. Jelgersma: “I expect thatthings will go quickly after a positive ruling. ACM will not allow anothermonopolist to be created with Youca. And who knows, Ziggo may say: let’s openthings up completely then.”
As an entrepreneur, he does not understand why the cable giant is firmlyagainst. “KPN gets 15 percent of its network traffic from competitors’services. That makes KPN a lot of money. That would be no different forVodafoneZiggo.” He suspects that the Dutch Ziggo management is willing, butthat the American shareholder, Liberty Global, is against competition. “TheAmerican way: sue them to hell.”
trench warfare
Not that he has KPN on his side. On the contrary. “KPN benefits from thestatus quo. They now have a monopoly on competition. When the Ziggo cableopens, their customers walk away. I am convinced that behind the scenes KPN isstrongly opposed to opening up.”
And so it is a fine trench warfare, which is waged from the third floor of asub-office on the Vijzelgracht. Jelgersma does not think about giving up. “Myfather started this; he is now 80 years old and still just as combative. WhenI’m 80 it’s either been open for years or I’m still fighting for it.” He justdoesn’t see his young daughters following in those footsteps.
ACM’s judgment is expected before the end of the year. The regulator has justretrieved the final responses to Youca’s request. Even after the ACM judgment,the battle is far from over. “If I lose, I will go back to court. And if Iwin, Ziggo will.”
Moreover, the cable operator, he expects, will do everything it can to trainthings as long as possible in the event of a positive judgment. “The questionis at which point in the cable network we will have access. If it is up toZiggo, this is at street cabinet level, which means that we have to lay cablesourselves to about 15,000 cabinets. Priceless of course. In our opinion, it isquite possible to plug in at the top of that cable network. That is how it is