ANGA CABLE – Cologne. Anga Cable opened this morning in a very upbeat mood. “We have grown a lot, we will grow even more – more than our competitors like to see,” said Thomas Braun, President of ANGA Verband Deutscher Kabelnetzbetreiber (Association of German CATV Operators) during his opening remarks. “We invested €100 million last year. We now offer broadband and telephony at very good prices, such as flatrates of around €30 a month. We have seen a very positive developments – as you can see for yourselves here in the packed halls here in Cologne.”
The main issues here are DVB meets IP and the introduction of DOCSIS 3.0, which offers broadband speeds up to 100 Mbps, “that is double the speed that VDSL from Deutsche Telecom offers.” Braun also pointed to the fact that the Anga event, from next year to have cable, broadband and satellite in its name, and is successful on its own, “we don’t need subsidy such as other Mediatagen to draw lots of visitors.” Commentating on recent spats between level 3 and level 4 operators Braun said “We should not forget that the enemy is outside cable world, not inside.”
Andreas Krautscheid, state secretary for media of the state of North Rhine – Westphalia, send a warning to the Bundeskartelamt (German monopoly commissions) concerning their decisions on various issues including mobile TV: “Let’s hope they will make a wise decision, to help market development and not a decision that will step on the brakes. They should realise they are making media politics, not just politics.”
