Vodafone Germany and Kabel Deutschland are set to launch a combined product offer of mobile telephony and data from the former and cable internet, phone and TV from the latter. Customers of the two firms will be able to purchase the ‘Vodafone All-in-One’ package from tomorrow (27 November). Prices start from EUR49.89 (USD62.1) per month for the first year (EUR69.89 per month thereafter) for a bundle of the Vodafone RED 1.5GB smartphone tariff (including a telephony and SMS flat rate, and LTE speeds) and a cable internet and phone package (including a fixed telephony flat rate and maximum downstream speeds of 100Mbps). For an additional EUR10 per month, customers can add on a cable TV service with 100 channels. In regions where cable is not available, Vodafone offers an alternative VDSL connection with data rates of up to 50Mbps.
As noted in TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Vodafone officially announced its intention to acquire Kabel Deutschland for EUR7.7 billion and EUR3 billion of net debt in June 2013. After launching a voluntary public takeover offer, on 13 September 2013 Vodafone said that the 75% minimum acceptance condition had been met, and following European Commission approval, the transaction completed on 14 October 2013 with Vodafone holding 76.57% of the share capital of Kabel Deutschland. Integration began on 1 April 2014, at which date the combined entity had a customer base of 40 million and a broadband network (DSL, cable or LTE) passing a total of 39.2 million households in Germany, of which 16.1 million were able to access connections speeds of at least 25Mbps.