The cities of Nuremberg, Landshut, Dingolfing and Fuerth will be the first to receive the new service which will offer high-speed internet access with a data rate of up to 1Gbps.
Nuremberg and Landshut were the first two cities in which Vodafone switched off analogue TV and radio channels and introduced the new cable standard DOCSIS 3.1 on which the gigabit service is based.
The new offering is being launched at a promotional price of €19.99 per month for the first 12 months, moving to €69.99 from the 13th month. In addition, those who sign up for the new tariff by the end of the year will receive the gigabit connection for the price of a 500Mbps connection.
Vodafone says that it plans on covering more than 6 million households with the gigabit service by the end of 2018 and as many as 11 million by the end of 2019. If the antitrust regulators approve the planned acquisition of Unitymedia, the second largest cable operator in Germany, Vodafone intends to offer gigabit speeds for 50 million people across he combined networks by the year 2022.
Back in May, Liberty Global entered into a definitive agreement to sell its operations in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic to Vodafone Group for $22.7 billion. Once completed Liberty Global will still remain one of Europe’s leading cable television and broadband provider, with operations in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland and Slovakia. The transaction will be reviewed by the European Commission for regulatory approval, which is expected to happen in mid-2019.
