UPC Nederland () was the second largest cable operator in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, providing

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

(digital and analogue), broadband

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

, and

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

service to both residential and commercial customers. In early 2015, UPC Nederland started merging with

Ziggo Ziggo Holding B.V. ( ) is the largest cable operator in the Netherlands, providing digital cable television, Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers. History The company is the result of the merger between ...

. 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 The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

-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 Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

A2000 network, joining later. Some of the larger cable companies bought by UPC were: A2000 (

and surrounding regions), Telekabel (

Gelderland Gelderland ( , ), also known as Guelders ( ) in English, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands, located in the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Nethe ...

, Brabant, and

Friesland Friesland ( ; ; official ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia (), named after the Frisians, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen (p ...

), Gelrevision (Northern part of the Veluwe, South-east

Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and newest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the countr ...

and East

), Eneco K&T (

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

and surrounding regions), Combivisie ( Brabant) and several smaller and mid-sized networks. UPC Nederland owned

premium television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, bu ...

service CineNova in a joint venture with Buena Vista International Television and

Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...

between 2000 and 2005. On 27 January 2014

Liberty Global Liberty Global Ltd. is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company domiciled in Bermuda, with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Holdings Limited (UK), Liberty Glo ...

announced that it would acquire

. 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 Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

broadband Internet In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide- bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Internet access. The transmission m ...

access, and

voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

services.

Cable television

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 Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting ...

content, catch-up TV from

public television Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

broadcasters and commercial television stations and

interactive television Interactive television is a form of Technological convergence#Media, media convergence, adding data services to traditional television technology. It has included on-demand delivery of content, online shopping, and viewer polls. Interactive TV i ...

using the

DVB-C Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable (DVB-C) is the Digital Video Broadcasting, DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over coaxial cable, cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 family digita ...

specification. UPC did use the

Nagravision Nagravision (or Nagra Kudelski or simply Nagra) is a company of the Kudelski Group that develops conditional access systems for digital cable and satellite television. The name is also used for their main products, the Nagravision enc ...

conditional access system Conditional access (CA) is a term commonly used in relation to software and to digital television systems. Conditional access is an evaluation to ensure the person who is seeking access to content is authorized to access the content. Access is man ...

. Nevertheless, about 40 TV channels and also 40 radio channels were transmitted in clear ( unencrypted). The new high-end

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

called Horizon got its first release in the

on 7 September 2012. It incorporates television, internet and telephone services in one device. It has six tuners, a

modem The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...

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

Mbit/s In telecommunications, data transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...

. , UPC offered the following subscription forms: Internet subscriptions included a Basic Cable TV and Radio (both analog and digital) subscription.

References

External links

UPC Nederland homepage

List of channels on UPC Nederland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Upc Nederland Liberty Global 1998 establishments in the Netherlands Telecommunications companies of the Netherlands Cable television companies of the Netherlands Internet service providers of the Netherlands