Vodafone Deutschland has removed the last analogue TV and radio channels from its cable network in Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt, thus completing analogue switch-off in all 13 served federal states.
Vodafone cable households now receive only digital channels. The vacated capacities are primarily used for fast internet based on the DOCSIS 3.1 standard.
Vodafone Deutschland already offers high-speed connections with up to 1Gbps for downloads in 10 federal states: More than eight million households can sign up for Gigabit access. By 2021, more than 12 million households and thus one third of Germans will be able to surf the net at Gigabit speed.
Vodafone Deutschland started analogue switch-off on January 9, 2018 with a pilot project in Landshut and Dingolfing, followed by Nuremberg and surroundings on May 15, 2018. The regular wave was kicked off in summer 2018: In 71 switchover nights, several hundred cities and towns were converted to digital-only TV and radio distribution.
Unitymedia was the first major German cable operator to complete analogue switch-off in July 2017.
The project office of the joint industry initiative ‘Digitales Kabel’ has been coordinating and supporting the digital transition since January 2018. Since almost all cable networks are now converted, the office will terminate its activities at the end of March 2019.
Tele Columbus, the third largest German cable operator after Vodafone and Unitymedia, plans to complete analogue switch-off in June 2019, a spokesman told Broadband TV News. Berlin and Potsdam were the last cities to make the move. “We still have large cities in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt as well as smaller networks in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg ahead of us,” explained the spokesman.
