Vodafone Deutschland gears up for analogue switch-off on its cable network (formerly Kabel Deutschland).
The first pilot project will commence in Landshut in early 2018, a Vodafone spokesman told Broadband TV News. The cable network of the Bavarian town will be converted to provide fully digital TV carriage. With the move, the company wants to collect practical experiences, said the spokesman.
Analogue switch-off clears the way for the introduction of new cable standard DOCSIS 3.1 which enables a more efficient use of the available capacity, for example for high-speed internet access in the gigabit range.
Unitymedia, Germany’s second-largest cable operator after Vodafone, completed analogue switch-off in July 2017. The transition was preceded by a pilot project in the town Hanau.
Digital TV penetration among German cable households has risen to 88.6% in 2017, according to the media authorities’ latest Digitisation Report. German cable operator association ANGA expects most cable operators to have completed analogue switch-off by the end of 2019, but calls for the market-driven transition to be accompanied by a legal ruling determining the latest possible switch-off date to establish legal certainty for network operators and customers.
[UPDATE] September 29, 2017, 10.00 CET Analogue switch-off will take place on January 9, 2018 and cover the regions Landshut and Dingolfing. Besides TV, analogue radio channels will also be removed – in contrast to Unitymedia where analogue FM radio continues to be offered on cable. From 2019, Vodafone wants to solely distribute digital channels throughout Bavaria. The company will announce further information on its website www.vodafone.de/digitalezukunft from October 9, 2017.
