Unitymedia teams up with Bochum for city-wide Gigabit rollout

German cable operator Unitymedia has revealed that it is rolling out the DOCSIS 3.1 standard across its networks in Bochum, a city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in order to enable customers to access gigabit-capable broadband speeds from early next year. The company, which is owned by UK-based Liberty Global, is cooperating with the city of Bochum and local utility supplier Stadtwerke Bochum under the Gigabit-City Bochum partnership. The initiative will enable more than 95% of households and businesses in Bochum to access the high speed service by the end of 2018. Unitymedia’s fibre-optic cable network currently reaches around 90% (170,000) of households in the city, while Stadtwerke has connected 16,000 residential units to its fibre infrastructure.