UPC Nederland ( en, UPC Netherlands) was the second largest cable operator in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, 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 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'' that consists ...

, and

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits 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 efficiently the human voice, into el ...

service to both residential and commercial customers. 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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

-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 ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

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 province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

, Brabant, and

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

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

Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and youngest 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 ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

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

CineNova Cinenova is a non-profit organisation based in London, dedicated to distributing films and videos made by women. Formed in 1991 from the merger of two feminist distributors, Circles and Cinema of Women, Cinenova provides the means to discover ...

in a joint venture with Buena Vista International Television and Sony Pictures Entertainment between 2000 and 2005. On 27 January 2014

Liberty Global Liberty Global plc is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Plc, Liberty Global B.V. and Liberty Global, Inc., with t ...

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

broadband Internet In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

access, and

voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Interne ...

services.

Cable television

Digital television

UPC Nederland provided about 200

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, wit ...

s including about 51 in HD and also more than 100 radio channels, DVR service, video-on-demand content, catch-up TV from

public television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

broadcasters and commercial television stations and interactive television using the

DVB-C Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable (DVB-C) is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 family digital audio/digital video stream, using a QAM ...

specification. UPC did use the Nagravision conditional access system. Nevertheless, about 40 TV channels and also 40 radio channels were transmitted in clear (

unencrypted In cryptography, plaintext usually means unencrypted information pending input into cryptographic algorithms, usually encryption algorithms. This usually refers to data that is transmitted or stored unencrypted. Overview With the advent of c ...

). The new high-end

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of si ...

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 A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by modulating one or more c ...

and a router on board.

Analogue television

There were about 30 analogue

s 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. , 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 Cable television companies