KPN (in full Koninklijke KPN N.V., also Royal KPN N.V.) is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company, including both 2G and 3G mobile operations. The company is based in The Hague.

History[link]

The company was formerly called Koninklijke PTT Nederland, and before that Staatsbedrijf der Posterijen, Telegrafie en Telefonie or PTT and was the publicly owned fixed line operator of the Netherlands. Before the spin-off of TPG, the company also controlled the national Dutch postal services. The Dutch government progressively privatised KPN beginning in 1994, reducing its stake to 6.4% in 2005 and finally to zero in 2006. It has thus given up its golden share veto rights.

In 2001 KPN tried to merge with the Belgian telco Belgacom. It did not succeed because of the unwillingness of the Belgian government. In 2001, Spanish Telefonica expressed an interest in buying KPN.

The Japanese mobile telephone company NTT DoCoMo holds a 2% stake in KPN Mobile NV. From 2002 until 2007 KPN Mobile provided i-mode services on its mobile phone networks. i-mode as introduced by KPN's E-Plus in Germany in March 2002 and by KPN Mobile The Netherlands in April 2002 was the first mobile internet service in Europe (ahead of Vodafone's V-live).

KPN partly owned KPNQwest, a telecommunications company equally owned by KPN and the American Qwest Communications International. The company was set to bring together the state-of-the-art fibre-optic networks of the two partners and the Internet services expertise and customer base of EUnet International. The company collapsed in a bankruptcy in 2002.

KPN also has operational synergies through joint ventures with TDC and Swisscom.

In 2007 KPN took over Getronics N.V., a worldwide ICT services company with more than 22,000 employees, and became almost two times its former size. KPN is still selling parts of Getronics that were not of their interest. Recently they sold a Dutch department of Getronics named Business Application Services (BAS) to CapGemini for about €250,000,000.

Activity[link]

KPN Head Office in The Hague

In the Netherlands, KPN has 6.3 million fixed-line phone customers. Its mobile division, KPN Mobile, has more than 33 million subscribers in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, and Spain under different brand names. Through its ownership of several European ISP's, KPN also provides Internet access to 2.1 million customers, and it offers business network services and data transport throughout Western Europe.

Operations[link]

As of 2004, KPN is active in the Dutch, German, Belgian, Spanish and France telecommunication markets.

Netherlands[link]

In the Dutch telephone market, KPN is the owner of the fixed telephone operations (FLO) network and is the market leader in mobile network operator (MNO), with the brands KPN Mobile and Telfort and as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) under the brand names Simyo, Ay Yildiz, Ortel Mobile and Hi.

In the Internet market, KPN is owner of several internet service providers (ISP): KPN Internet, XS4ALL, Planet Internet, Het Net, Freeler, Speedlinq, Demon Netherlands and HCCNet. They bought the Dutch subsidiary of Tiscali in September 2006, which continues under the brand name Telfort. Currently, KPN's remaining internet service providers are XS4ALL, Telfort and KPN Internet.

In 2004, KPN also started offering digital terrestrial television in the Netherlands as part of its multi-play services via its subsidiary Digitenne. Since 1 May 2006, KPN offers Interactieve TV, an IPTV service based on their DSL service, with the ability to receive Video on demand and replay your missed TV episodes besides regular TV programming.

KPN Retail is a Dutch subsidiary that owns retail stores under the brands of kpn winkel, Hi Stores and KPN Business Center.

Belgium[link]

In Belgium, the KPN subsidiary BASE is the third largest supplier of mobile telephony and is also active as a virtual mobile phone operator under the brand names Simyo and Ortel Mobile.

In 2007 KPN purchased the Belgian fixed telephone and broadband operations of the Tele2-Versatel joint venture. These were sold again in December 2009 to Mobistar (Orange).

KPN has purchased the Belgian telecommunications retail store Allo Telecom. KPN also holds a 33.3% share in MVNO Mobile Vikings^[2]

Germany[link]

In Germany, KPN is, with subsidiary company E-Plus, the third largest player on the mobile telephony market. It is also active as a virtual mobile phone operator under the brand names BASE, Simyo, Vybemobile and Blau Mobilfunk.

KPN bought the telephone retailer SMS Michel Communication.

Spain[link]

In Spain, KPN is active as two virtual mobile phone operators under the brand names Simyo and Blau via Orange España .

France[link]

In France, KPN is active as virtual mobile phone operator under the brand name Simyo which operates via Bouygues Télécom.

International[link]

On December 21, 2009 KPN became 100% owner of the US based iBasis, formerly a publicly traded company. iBasis is a provider of wholesale international IP telephony services.

KPN also offers ICT services in the Benelux countries through its subsidiaries Newtel Essence (call center solutions and customer relations management), Getronics (automation), Nozema and CSS Telecom.

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Annual Report 2010". KPN. http://www.kpn.com/web/file?uuid=5522e02e-b026-478c-a71c-e459fe3ca43e&owner=538601d0-0742-489e-913b-28b1c94d3b88. Retrieved 16 April 2011. 
2. ^ http://blog.mobileweb.be/2009/05/26/kpn-and-concentra-invest-in-mobile-vikings/

External links[link]

• Official website

Companies portal

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