KPN will not acquire cable provider CAIW (Caiway), after competition watchdog NMa had too many objections to the deal. CAIW is part of infrastructure fund CIF (Rabo Bouwfonds Communication Infrastructure Fund), and KPN announced the proposed acquisition in May last year. CAIW provides digital cable TV, telephony and internet services under the Caiway brand. One of the NMa's objections was that the regional market share of Caiway and KPN would become too big in Westland. At end-March 2011, Caiway had 143,000 TV customers, 74,000 internet customers and 33,000 telephony customers. KPN called the NMa position regrettable, because Caiway was a service provider with an open infrastructure, which believed in fibre and which would therefore fit perfectly with KPN's strategy and vision. KPN said it also believes in open networks. In order to buy CAIW, KPN would have had to open its –future- fibre network to other companies and allow them to offer services over both infrastructures. The NMa began its investigation into the matter in May 2011. It then announced in August 2011 that it needed to look further into the acquisition. It looked then very likely that the regulator would add conditions to the deal. The NMa and Opta both said they feared that competition in Westland would be limited by the buy, because other providers would not be able to access the networks. In early September 2011, KPN still asked for a permit to acquire CAIW. The NMa officially received the request on 27 September.
