Seven in 10 Dutch homes have broadband: survey

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Seven in 10 homes in the Netherlands had a broadband Internet connection at the end of the third quarter, with the total number of connected households topping 5.43 million, a survey found on Friday.

The Netherlands, with 16 million people, has one of the highest broadband penetrations in the world.

The Dutch broadband market grew by 1.7 percent or 89,100 connections in the third quarter of the year, continuing a slowdown that began end-2006, said research group Telecompaper.

"This slowdown in growth was unexpected and has led to a lower estimate for the full year," said analyst Kamiel Albrecht.

He scaled down his 12 percent growth forecast to 9 percent, estimating 5.5 million broadband connections at end-2007.

Former telecoms monopoly KPN was the top broadband operator with a 44 percent market share, nearly double the 23.4 percent share of next ranked supplier Zesko.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)