Study sees 3 mln Dutch Internet phone users in '08

AMSTERDAM, March 18 (Reuters) - The Dutch market for Internet telephony will grow by around 7 percent per quarter in 2008 to reach 3 million users in the third quarter, market research firm Telecompaper forecast on Tuesday.
Telecompaper analyst Kamiel Albrecht said the growth in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) users would be driven by new entrants in the market for broadband Internet connections such as Telecom Italia's (TLIT.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) Alice and KPN's (KPN.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) Telfort brand. Telfort targets price-conscious customers and offers broadband Internet and VoIP in a bundle for about 30 euros ($47) a month, comparable with Alice's offer.
Operators of cable television networks such as Zesko -- the product of a merger of Casema, Multikabel and Essent Kabelcom -- and UPC are also trying to sell Internet access and telephony to their customers, further supporting growth of Internet telephone connections, Albrecht said. VoIP subscriptions grew 7.3 percent to 2.53 million in the fourth quarter, Telecompaper said. KPN showed the strongest growth and ended the quarter with 33.5 percent market share. Zesko and UPC were second and third in market share.
KPN has put its fourth-quarter market share at 39 percent.
Over the whole year of 2007, growth in digital telephony subscriptions compensated for the decline in traditional telephone lines, with the total Dutch consumer telephony market growing by 22,000 connections to 5.69 million, Telecompaper said.
Zesko is owned by private equity companies Cinven [CINV.UL] and Warburg Pincus [WP.UL]. (Reporting by Niclas Mika; Editing by David Holmes)
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSL1885735620080318