Tele Columbus acquires cable network in North Rhine-Westphalia

German regional cable operator Tele Columbus has acquired the entire cable network of Gesellschaft fur Breitbandkabel- und Satellitenkommunikationstechnik (GBS) in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The deal involves around 1,900 connected households in Bergheim and the Cologne district of Meschenich. Tele Columbus plans to upgrade the cable network in these areas to enable the supply of triple-play services, including high speed broadband internet. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that Tele Columbus provides cable TV, broadband internet access and voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) telephony services to around 1.7 million connected households in its core eastern areas of Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, as well as parts of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Earlier this month it was reported that the cableco was looking to select banks for an initial public offering (IPO) in the second half of the year.