Network, Operations & IT
Strategy
Providing best-in-class fiber and mobile networks is central to our strategy, and KPN is making a significant contribution to the country’s digital resilience.
In line with our Connect, Activate & Grow strategy to optimize the value of our passive infrastructure assets and retain strategic flexibility, together with ABP we announced the start of a new mobile tower company, Althio. Through Althio, we gain greater flexibility over a substantial portion of our mobile sites, enabling strategic synergies in the deployment, maintenance, and optimization of the mobile network infrastructure.
We also took major steps in digitizing customer interaction and simplifying our processes on a new, state-of -the-art data platform. And we improved our efficiency, using predictive maintenance to further enhance the customer experience.
Highlights
Looking back on 2025, there is much to be proud of. Our achievements range from successfully migrating complex platforms and infrastructure to introducing innovations and new services to the market. And for the fourth year in a row, we were named as the best mobile network in the Netherlands, with the highest score worldwide in umlaut's and connect's Mobile Network Test 2025.
We remain the leader in the Dutch fiber market. Together with our joint venture Glaspoort, we now cover more than two-thirds of Dutch households and are making steady progress in connecting homes and activating new fiber lines, achieving relatively more homes connected in relation to homes passed than in the previous years.
To reinforce our leading position in mobile, we improved coverage and speeds, leading to greater capacity and less congestion. We deployed more than 500 sites with 3.5 GHz for 5G in large cities, along busy roads and in densely populated areas.
Our contribution to two big international events put us in the spotlight: during the NATO summit in The Hague, KPN delivered secure and reliable connectivity, while at the SAIL maritime festival we supported the organization, the safety region, emergency services and the municipality with our robust network and technology to enhance safety and crowd management for 2.5 million visitors – all bearing out the strength of our cultural pillar: “Working together is winning together”.
In 2025 we communicated our intention to work towards carbon-free energy (CFE) 24/7, which focuses on the hourly usage of green energy. Starting in 2027 we will use carbon-free energy almost two-thirds of the time as our networks will then be powered by solar energy from Kabeljauwbeek and wind energy from Ecowende.
Challenges
In 2025 we truly experienced the consequences of Dutch energy grid congestion, as we were unable to obtain all the energy connections and capacity we needed. To address this, we strengthened our governance on energy grid congestion. We improved our analysis and forecasting of risks, enabling us to anticipate potential bottlenecks more effectively. We also intensified dialogue with grid operators and other stakeholders to explore cooperative solutions. In addition, we implemented technical measures such as battery energy storage systems (BESS) and emergency power generators. Thanks to these initiatives, we managed to limit the impact of grid congestion on our services.
Our fiber rollout is a massive operation, presenting challenges in multiple areas such as licensing, capacity scarcity, minimizing disruption for residents and guaranteeing quality on a large scale. We have further strengthened our planning processes and collaboration with municipalities – that is how we are building a future-proof network for the whole of the country.
Outside in
We are preparing for future developments and innovations such as AI, 6G, quantum computing and photonics, working with universities (TU Delft, TU Eindhoven) and research institutes such as TNO (the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research).
Outlook
Our goal for 2026 is clear: continue to invest in top quality and reliability of our networks to deliver the best services and experience to our customers. We are raising our fiber optic ambition and now aim to provide up to 85% of all Dutch households with fiber optics by 2030. The focus is on further digitalization, simplification, rationalization, and automation through implementing our transformation programs. Strategic partnerships help us optimize the return on our investments, whether in our passive infrastructure or in leveraging knowledge and experience for the transformations we are undergoing. With our continued strong focus on collaboration, we are on course to meet our Connect, Activate & Grow objectives.
