Vodafone launches free gigabit hotspots in Berlin

Vodafone has activated three gigabit hotspots in Berlin at the start of CeBIT in Hanover. The hotspots have a maximum download speed of 1Gbit/s and upload speed of 600Mbit/s. Its use is not limited to the provider’s customers.

In partnership with Cisco and AVM, the company is supplying the gigabit speed to a restaurant near the German parliament building, a cafe on Kurfürstendamm and a cafe near the Brandenburg Gate. The equipment for the first two is provided by Cisco, the equipment for the latter is from AVM.

Vodafone already has a million Wi-Fi hotspots in Germany. Many of these concern the routers of customers of his cable service. By the end of 2016, Vodafone also wants to provide the first home users with 1Gbit/s connections. According to the provider, the delivery of 1Gbit/s is only possible via fiber, but it is working on interim solutions. For example, it is working on a prototype router that should combine the mobile network and cable network by using 500Mbit/s of each.

Vodafone claims to need financial help from the German state for the expansion of the fiber optic network. According to Die Welt, most German households have internet speeds below 50Mbit/s. Vodafone’s Kabel Deutschland already provides 25 million Germans with speeds of 200Mbit/s. In April, the provider wants to offer 400Mbit/s.

Vodafone isn’t the first to come up with gigabit per second speeds for its Wi-Fi hotspots. In New York, LinkNYC started making a hotspot with that maximum speed available in January. The company wants to have 500 hotspots in the city by July. It is not known how many German hotspots Vodafone wants to bring the gigabit speed to.