‘Laptops and Lederhose’: KDG extends hotspot service to Bavaria

German cable operator Kabel Deutschland (KDG) has announced plans to expand its Wi-Fi hotspot service to 50 towns and cities in the federal state of Bavaria. The company expects to roll out around 300 public hotspots by October 2013 in areas including Bayreuth, Freising, Kempten, Landsberg, Munich, Nuremberg, Passau and Wurzburg. The service offers 30 minutes of free access per day to internet at download speeds of up to 100Mbps, while KDG subscribers that have registered at the firm’s customer portal are given unlimited access to the hotspot service. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database states that KDG’s public Wi-Fi network was first launched in Berlin in October 2012, in cooperation with the Media Authority of Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb). The cableco initially rolled out 44 public hotspots across the city, in locations such as Hackescher Markt, Gendarmenmarkt, Unter den Linden, Kastanienallee und Kollwitzplatz. In March 2013 the cableco revealed that the number of hotspots had increased to 55, adding that by that date 250,000 connections had been made to the Berlin network, while the service was premiered in Potsdam the following month.