Former type Besloten Vennootschap Defunct 2015 Headquarters Amsterdam, Netherlands Founded 1995 | Industry Telecommunications Website upc.nl Successor Ziggo Ceased operations 2015 | |
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Area served Parts of:
Flevoland
Friesland
Gelderland
North Brabant
North Holland
South Holland Products Cable television
Broadband Internet
Telephony Parent organizations Liberty Global, UPC Holding B.V. Areas served Flevoland, Friesland, Gelderland, North Brabant, North Holland, South Holland | ||
UPC Nederland (English: UPC Netherlands) was the second largest cable operator in the Netherlands, providing cable television (digital and analogue), broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers.
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In early 2015, UPC Nederland started merging with Ziggo. The name UPC was finally phased out in favor of Ziggo on 13 April 2015.
History
UPC Nederland was formed in 1995 as a joint venture between the Philips Electronics and United International Holdings, a United States-owned media company, setting off on a path of quick acquisition of the Netherlands' then mostly regional TV cable operators, many of whom were already partially owned by Philips. The South-Eastern and Eastern cable networks were unified under the UPC name in 1998, with other networks, the largest being the Amsterdam A2000 network, joining later.
Some of the larger cable companies bought by UPC were: A2000 (Amsterdam and surrounding regions), Telekabel (Gelderland, Brabant, and Friesland), Gelrevision (Northern part of the Veluwe, South-east Flevoland and East Gelderland), Eneco K&T (Rotterdam and surrounding regions), Combivisie (Brabant) and several smaller and mid-sized networks.
On 27 January 2014 Liberty Global announced that it would acquire Ziggo. In December 2014 the shares of Ziggo N.V. were delisted from Euronext Amsterdam as Ziggo was converted into the Dutch private limited company Ziggo Holding B.V. (Besloten Vennootschap), owned by Liberty Global. On 5 January 2015 Ziggo started to harmonize its cable network with the UPC Nederland cable network. The name UPC was finally phased out in favor of Ziggo on 13 April 2015.
Services
UPC Nederland offered analogue and digital cable television, broadband Internet access, and voice over IP telephone services.
Digital television
UPC Nederland provided about 200 television channels including about 51 in HD and also more than 100 radio channels, DVR service, video-on-demand content, catch-up TV from public television broadcasters and commercial television stations and interactive television using the DVB-C specification. UPC did use the Nagravision conditional access system. Nevertheless, about 40 TV channels and also 40 radio channels were transmitted in clear (unencrypted).
The new high-end set-top box called Horizon got its first release in the Netherlands on 7 September 2012. It incorporates television, internet and telephone services in one device. It has six tuners, a modem and a router on board.
Analogue television
There were about 30 analogue television channels and about 40 analogue radio channels available.
Internet
UPC Nederland was in 2008 the first cable company in Europe to be using the new EuroDOCSIS 3.0 cable standard. This new standard made it possible to achieve speeds comparable to fiber, up to 120 Mb/s. As of July 2014, UPC offered the following subscription forms:
Internet subscriptions included a Basic Cable TV and Radio (both analog and digital) subscription.