CompanyGraph
Koninklijke KPN N.V.
KPN · Euronext Brussels · Netherlands
Owns the Netherlands' original national phone network and leases it to competitors while upgrading it to fiber.
Koninklijke KPN N.V. owns the copper cables, conduits, and building entry points that the Dutch state telephone monopoly, PTT, laid under the streets of the Netherlands before KPN was ever a private company — physical infrastructure that any competitor wanting to reach the same addresses would need decades and municipal permits to replicate from scratch. Because those conduits are the only practical path into building basements, rivals must lease access from KPN, and the ACM, the Dutch regulator, sets the price of that lease rather than KPN setting it itself. The same capped lease rate that limits how much KPN earns on the inherited network is also the main source of revenue KPN uses to pay for replacing that copper with fiber — so the speed of the upgrade depends directly on whatever margin the ACM decides to allow. If the ACM were to cut regulated prices below the cost of laying each new meter of fiber, the conduit network would stop funding its own replacement and become an asset that connects competitors cheaply while KPN absorbs the bill.
How does this company make money?
Most revenue comes from monthly fees paid by households and businesses for broadband, mobile, and television bundles. Larger business customers pay under longer-term contracts for dedicated fiber connections and managed network services. Competing telecoms that must use KPN's infrastructure pay wholesale fees set by the ACM for that access. Finally, KPN's iBasis unit collects a fee for every minute of international voice calls it routes and terminates on behalf of other carriers around the world.
What makes this company hard to replace?
Dutch regulations require number transfers to complete within 24 to 48 hours, and during that window business customers face a real risk of service interruption — a window most businesses do not want to risk. Enterprise customers with dedicated fiber installations are typically locked into multi-year contracts, and switching physically requires reconnecting dedicated wavelength allocations, not just changing a settings page. International carriers connected through KPN's iBasis platform have signed interconnection agreements that specify exactly which Points of Presence their traffic must flow through, making a switch a logistical renegotiation, not a simple cancellation.
What limits this company?
Replacing copper with fiber requires physically digging up streets, getting permits from each Dutch municipality, and connecting fiber to every building one at a time. No amount of extra money can make that process faster — it is limited by the physical and legal steps in sequence. At the same time, the ACM caps how much KPN earns per meter of fiber laid. These two limits — slow deployment and capped revenue — push against each other at once, rather than one solving the other.
What does this company depend on?
KPN cannot operate without Dutch government spectrum licenses covering the 700MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, and 3.5GHz radio bands for mobile service. It relies on Ericsson and Nokia to supply the equipment that runs its 5G network. Fiber deployment requires ongoing access to building basements and underground utility corridors under municipal permits. International voice traffic through KPN's iBasis business depends on submarine cable landing rights in the Netherlands. And KPN's own copper-to-fiber replacement program is the foundation of its broadband competitiveness — without continuing that work, the network falls behind Ziggo's cable network.
Who depends on this company?
Dutch government agencies use KPN for secure domestic connectivity; if KPN were replaced by a foreign carrier, those agencies would face concerns about data sovereignty. Enterprise customers with dedicated fiber connections rely on KPN's last-mile infrastructure for day-to-day operations — losing that access would halt their connectivity entirely. International telecom carriers route calls through KPN's iBasis platform; without it, their call completion rates would fall. Mobile virtual network operators like Lebara lease capacity from KPN's mobile network to serve their own subscribers, who would lose service if that capacity disappeared.
How does this company scale?
Once a fiber strand is in the ground, it can carry the traffic of many more subscribers without being replaced — a technology called wavelength division multiplexing allows the same physical fiber to serve far more users cheaply. What does not scale easily is getting the fiber into the ground in the first place: trenching, permitting, and building-by-building installation across Dutch municipalities remain a slow, fixed-pace process that does not speed up just because KPN grows.
What external forces can significantly affect this company?
European Union Digital Single Market rules require KPN to support cross-border roaming and number portability, which limits how it can structure international services. Dutch climate policy requires KPN to improve the energy efficiency of its network infrastructure. In rural parts of the Netherlands, an aging and shrinking population means fewer potential subscribers per kilometer of fiber laid, making those deployments harder to justify financially.
Where is this company structurally vulnerable?
If the ACM cuts the regulated wholesale access price below what it costs KPN to lay each meter of fiber, KPN can no longer earn back its upgrade investment from either the competitors renting its network or its own retail customers. At that point, KPN would be legally required to let competitors use its infrastructure at a price that does not cover the cost of keeping that infrastructure modern — turning its inherited network from an advantage into an unpayable obligation.