German cable operator Unitymedia will begin rolling out gigabit speeds to around 380,000 households in Frankfurt, representing around 90% of the city’s homes, in October. The announcement follows the launch of the company’s first ‘gigabit city’ – Bochum in North Rhine-Westphalia – last month. Wherever a Unitymedia cable connection is available, households and businesses will have internet access at speeds of up to 1Gbps download and 50Mbps upload, following the rollout of the DOCSIS 3.1 standard.
Last month Vodafone Group agreed to acquire Liberty Global’s operations in Germany, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic for EUR18.4 billion (USD21.7 billion). The deal includes Unitymedia, which operates in Baden-Wurttemberg, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, with Vodafone claiming that by unifying the two firm’s cable networks and upgrading to gigabit networks, the combined entity will enable 25 million gigabit connections by 2022.