• DELTA Fiber secures €2 billion to build out its network in The Netherlands
• Plans to reach 25% of the country
• It says it will be offering XGS-PON at faster connection speeds

Europe’s dash to dig out its fibre access networks rages on this week with an announcement  from The Netherlands-based DELTA Fiber, owned by Swedish private equity investor EQT, that it’s secured an investment of €2 billion that will be used to deploy XGS-PON across the country and expand its current network to 2 million fiber connections by 2025. 
The move and the financial support it has received, is one more sign that investors are now sold on the long-term viability of fibre building, and comes in the wake of Dutch incumbent operator, KPN, rejecting a takeover overture from a private equity consortium comprising EQT and US investment firm KKR KKR.N. 
DELTA Fiber says its new financing has been secured by the underwriters ABN AMRO, ING, SEB, Santander and Deutsche Bank, who will place the loan with a consortium of national and international banks. The fixed financing framework is €1.45 billion, which can be expanded with an additional €600 million.
DELTA Fiber CEO, Marco Visser,  claims the financing will allow his company to significantly accelerate  its fiber rollout and expand its network to reach 25% of The Netherlands by connecting 2 million homes and businesses - located predominantly in the smaller villages and towns - throughout the country.
XGS-PON is the latest version of G-PON  (Gigabit Passive Optical Network), and it’s important for CSPs because it’s based on symmetrical operation (rather than asymmetrical which better suits ISPs). XGS-PON provides symmetric 10G GPON transmission, something we’ll be hearing more of as network operators increasingly deploy it or use it to upgrade existing fibre networks. 
However the 10 Gbit version of PON is only a relatively brief staging post: DELTA Fiber says it’s on its way to utilising 25 Gbit PON and intends to announce new higher connection speeds to customers and their subscription prices soon.