Delta pushing billions into bringing fiber to small Dutch municipalities

Telecom company Delta is pushing 2 billion euros into installing fiber optics in the Netherlands. The companies hopes to provide 2 million Dutch households with fiber internet by 2025, focusing primarily on the smaller towns and cities, the company announced in a press release.

"We are making gigabit-plus speeds the new standard and we want to make it accessible to as many people as possible," Delta CEO Marco Visser said.

If the company succeeds in reaching 2 million households, it will hold about a quarter of the fiber optic connections and be real competition for the Netherlands two biggest providers of fixed internet - KPN and Ziggo, according to Financieele Dagblad. Delta currently has about 900 thousand customers. Ziggo has about 3.5 million internet connections, and KPN about 3 million.

Delta is able to invest this large amount thanks to a loan from a number of banks working together, according to NOS. ABN Amro, ING and a number of international banks entered into a consortium to provide 1.45 billion euros. That amount can be expanded by 600 million euros.

Delta is owned by Swedish investor EQT, which tried to acquire KPN last spring with the plan to merge the Delta and KPN networks. KPN declined the offer.