@Home Nederland to Launch Broadband Internet Services in May
My note: Powered by windmills?
@Home Nederland Reaches an Agreement in Principle to Add 3rd Cable Partner In Maastricht
April 30, 1999 08:00 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Building its international presence, @Home Nederland today announced that it will distribute its high-speed cable Internet service in the Netherlands beginning in May 1999. The initial rollout of the service to subscribers of CasTel and Palet Kabelcom, @Home Nederland's existing Dutch cable partners, will begin in four towns, reaching a total 126,000 households. Also announced today is the addition of a third cable partner, N.V. Nutsbedrijven Maastricht, which plans to distribute the @Home Nederland service to 55,000 cable subscribers in Maastricht and Eijsden beginning in Autumn of 1999.
"We are happy that N.V. Nutsbedrijven Maastricht will be joining the @Home family of cable affiliates around the world and that together we will be delivering the @Home experience to the residents of Maastricht and Eijsden," says Jamie Howard, CEO of @Home Nederland. "We see this as a key strategic alliance with a technologically advanced company with a state-of-the-art network and shares our vision of the power of broadband in the delivery of Internet services."
Committed to bringing the @Home experience to the Netherlands, @Home Nederland's agreement in principle with N.V. Nutsbedrijven Maastricht will bring the total number of homes passed to over 1.4 million. Providing consumers with the opportunity to enjoy @Home's rich array of broadband content and applications, the @Home Nederland service will debut with 8 content channels, including News, Finance, Culture and Games. Along with access to the Internet at speeds significantly faster than previously available, subscribers will be able to get Dutch and International news, video on demand, CD-quality audio, high-speed games, movie previews, software downloading, and more.
"Building a full-feature rich media service will be our focus over the coming months and years," says Rik Rensen, Director of Programming & Content at @Home Nederland. "We have a number of other deals in the pipeline and expect to announce additional partners very soon. We'll have a separate announcement timed to coincide with the @dTech conference in June where we'll be introducing our Charter Advertising Program."
@Home Nederland augments its own content by aggregating the best content available on the Web and integrating it directly into the @Home service. As one example, @Home Nederland has partnered with Fox News Online to provide breaking news stories from around the world 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The news videos will be updated on a daily basis and can be accessed by subscribers on-demand, enabling them to get what they want, when they want it. With its true broadband platform, @Home Nederland allows Fox News to deliver global content that takes advantage of the interactivity of the Internet. @Home Nederland's news service will be supplemented with Dutch news feeds from ANP, Beursmedia, Meteoconsult and others. As another example, Segasoft's Heat.net multi-player gaming service will provide the fastest online gaming in Europe on @Home Nederland's network.
"The collaboration with @Home Nederland fits perfectly with our objectives to offer a wide range of cable services in Maastricht," according to Jan van de Water, General Manager of N.V. Nutsbedrijven Maastricht. "Moreover, @Home Nederland's broadband Internet service is ideally suited to the portfolio of products we wish to offer to both consumers and the industry in Maastricht."
@Home Nederland
Based in Amsterdam, @Home Nederland is a joint venture between @Home Network, Intel Corporation, CasTel and Palet Kabelcom. @Home Nederland currently has distribution agreements with CasTel, Palet Kabelcom, and Nutsbedrijven Maastricht through which it reaches over 1.4 million households in the Netherlands. @Home Nederland currently employs 80 people in Amsterdam. The company develops and markets a Dutch version of @Home's high-speed cable Internet service in the Netherlands and the Flemish-speaking parts of Belgium by leveraging @Home Network's technology, content, systems and operating expertise combined with high quality Dutch and European content.
Individuals seeking additional information can refer to the @Home Nederland website: http//www.home.nl.
NOTE: @Home, @Home Network, @Work, @Home Nederland and @Home Benelux and the @-ball logo are registered trademarks of At Home Corporation. All other product and trade names are trademarks of their respective owners.
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