Kabel Deutschland offers concessions to secure Tele Columbus networks

German cable operator Kabel Deutschland (KDG) has offered a range of commitments to secure the approval of the country’s competition regulator for its proposed acquisition of Tele Columbus’s cable networks.

The regulator, the Bundeskartellamt, expressed concerns about the impact of the deal on competition in December, particularly in relation to the provision of services to the housing industry.

KDG has committed to sell certain Tele Columbus networks including contracts with the housing industry in the cities of Berlin, Dresden and Cottbus, covering over 430,000 households. This would reduce the scale of the original acquisition of 2.1 million households by about a fifth.

KDG said the merger would provide better broadband coverage in eastern Germany and deliver better competition in the retail and housing market segments in Hesse and North-Rhine Westphalia, where Liberty Global is the principal cable provider.