Netherlands - Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people)

The value for Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) in Netherlands was 28.81 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 62.09 in 2000 and a minimum value of 9.12 in 1961.

Definition: Fixed telephone subscriptions refers to the sum of active number of analogue fixed telephone lines, voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriptions, fixed wireless local loop (WLL) subscriptions, ISDN voice-channel equivalents and fixed public payphones.

Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report and database.

See also:

Year Value
1960 9.12
1961 9.12
1962 9.12
1963 9.12
1964 9.12
1965 12.28
1966 12.28
1967 12.28
1968 12.28
1969 12.28
1970 16.94
1971 16.94
1972 16.94
1973 16.94
1974 16.94
1975 24.38
1976 26.19
1977 28.31
1978 30.61
1979 32.73
1980 34.58
1981 35.88
1982 37.01
1983 38.02
1984 39.09
1985 40.12
1986 41.31
1987 42.46
1988 43.77
1989 44.99
1990 46.37
1991 47.63
1992 48.76
1993 50.00
1994 51.14
1995 52.52
1996 54.17
1997 56.59
1998 59.30
1999 60.71
2000 62.09
2001 50.93
2002 49.82
2003 48.43
2004 48.26
2005 46.43
2006 45.32
2007 44.86
2008 44.16
2009 43.64
2010 43.35
2011 42.62
2012 42.77
2013 42.30
2014 41.12
2015 41.04
2016 39.89
2017 38.49
2018 34.58
2019 32.52
2020 28.81

Development Relevance: The quality of an economy's infrastructure, including power and communications, is an important element in investment decisions for both domestic and foreign investors. Government effort alone is not enough to meet the need for investments in modern infrastructure; public-private partnerships, especially those involving local providers and financiers, are critical for lowering costs and delivering value for money. In telecommunications, competition in the marketplace, along with sound regulation, is lowering costs, improving quality, and easing access to services around the globe. Access to telecommunication services rose on an unprecedented scale over the past two decades. This growth was driven primarily by wireless technologies and liberalization of telecommunications markets, which have enabled faster and less costly network rollout. Fixed telephone lines are those that connect a subscriber's terminal equipment to the public switched telephone network and that have a port on a telephone exchange. This term is synonymous with the term main station or Direct Exchange Line (DEL) that is commonly used in telecommunication documents. Integrated services digital network channels and fixed wireless subscribers are included. A fixed line also refers to a phone which uses a solid medium telephone line such as a metal wire or fiber optic cable for transmission as distinguished from a mobile cellular line which uses radio waves for transmission. Over the past decade new financing and technology, along with privatization and market liberalization, have spurred dramatic growth in telecommunications in many countries. With the rapid development of mobile telephony and the global expansion of the Internet, information and communication technologies are increasingly recognized as essential tools of development, contributing to global integration and enhancing public sector effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency.

Limitations and Exceptions: Operators have traditionally been the main source of telecommunications data, so information on subscriptions has been widely available for most countries. This gives a general idea of access, but a more precise measure is the penetration rate - the share of households with access to telecommunications. During the past few years more information on information and communication technology use has become available from household and business surveys. Also important are data on actual use of telecommunications services. Ideally, statistics on telecommunications (and other information and communications technologies) should be compiled for all three measures: subscriptions, access, and use. The quality of data varies among reporting countries as a result of differences in regulations covering data provision and availability. Discrepancies between global and national figures may arise when countries use a different definition than the one used by ITU. For example, some countries do not include the number of ISDN channels when calculating the number of fixed telephone lines. Discrepancies may also arise in cases where the end of a fiscal year differs from that used by ITU, which is the end of December of every year. A number of countries have fiscal years that end in March or June of every year. Data are usually not adjusted but discrepancies in the definition, reference year or the break in comparability in between years are noted in a data note. For this reason, data are not always strictly comparable. Missing values are estimated by ITU.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: A fixed telephone line (previously called main telephone line in operation) is an active line connecting the subscriber's terminal equipment to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and which has a dedicated port in the telephone exchange equipment. This term is synonymous with the terms main station or Direct Exchange Line (DEL) that are commonly used in telecommunication documents. It may not be the same as an access line or a subscriber. This should include the active number of analog fixed telephone lines, ISDN channels, fixed wireless, public payphones and VoIP subscriptions. Active lines are those that have registered an activity in the past three months. Data on fixed telephone lines are derived using administrative data that countries (usually the regulatory telecommunication authority or the Ministry in charge of telecommunications) regularly, and at least annually, collect from telecommunications operators. Data are considered to be very reliable, timely, and complete. Data for this indicator are readily available for approximately 90 percent of countries, either through ITU's World Telecommunication Indicators questionnaires or from official information available on the Ministry or Regulator's website. For the rest, information can be aggregated through operators' data (mainly through annual reports) and complemented by market research reports. Telephone lines (per 100 people) indicator is derived by all telephone lines divided by the country's population and multiplied by 100. For additional/latest information on sources and country notes, please also refer to: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Please cite the International Telecommunication Union for third-party use of these data.

Classification

Topic: Infrastructure Indicators

Sub-Topic: Communications