Vodafone Deutschland outlines Gigabit plans

Gigabit excitement: Andreas Scheuer and Hannes Ametsreiter in Berlin

Vodafone Deutschland has outlined plans for further network investments, with the creation of the first ‘Gigabit city’ in Bavaria pencilled in for later this month.

Vodafone said that it would connect 16 million people to its Gigabit network by the middle of next year, rising to 22 million by the end of the year. The company has set out an ambition of delivering Gigabit connectivity to one third of all Germans by 2020.

The company said that if the German antitrust authorities agree to the planned acquisition of Liberty Global-owned Unitymedia, it will offer Gigabit speeds to 50 million people across its combined networks by 2022.

At a presentation of plans in Berlin, Vodafone CEO Hannes Ametsreiter presented the company’s first Gigabit cable router to Federal minister Andreas Scheuer.

Scheuer said that the German government had set a goal of achieving nationwide Gigabit connectivity by 2025 and that Vodafone was contributing significantly to this goal.