Vodafone Germany is preparing its cable fiber optic network for the future. To achieve this, the company carries out thousands of segmentations each year and installs even more fiber optic cables into its network.
The next major step is now underway: the reorganization and consolidation of the frequencies used to transmit digital TV and radio signals. This will standardize the frequency spectrum across Germany and make its gigabit network even more powerful – for TV, telephone, and internet.
Krefeld, Böblingen, Hürth, and Bünde are among the first service areas where the frequency switch has already been successfully implemented. Another 400 cities and municipalities, covering a total of 8.6 million TV connections, will follow over the next 11 months. If everything goes according to plan, the project will be completed by mid-2026. The reassignment will free up frequencies, potentially enabling better internet coverage and higher transmission speeds for the approximately 25 million fiber optic cable connections across Germany.
NorDig standard saves customers time
As part of the frequency switchover, Vodafone is introducing the NorDigLCN standard across its entire cable fiber optic network. Modern receivers can now automatically detect when a channel is moved to a different slot. Channels are transmitted with a fixed, logical channel numbering system (Logical Channel Numbering) and automatically saved. Manual channel sorting is no longer required, and the favorites list remains unchanged – provided the receiver supports this system.
In addition, Vodafone will use the modern H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) video compression method to transmit SD channels. HD channels are already transmitted in this format.
Please do not unplug
Vodafone recommends that customers leave their receivers and cable routers plugged in overnight during the switchover and check in the morning whether all channels are available as before. Depending on the device, it may be necessary to adjust favorites lists and reprogram recordings to ensure everything functions properly.
Background to the conversion and distribution of the TV signal
In the previous cable network, TV channels and radio programs were transmitted on regionally varying frequencies. The ongoing technical conversion will standardize the frequency spectrum nationwide, improving network performance for television, telephony, and internet.
To distribute the TV signal, Vodafone operates two large broadcast centers located in Frankfurt-Rödelheim and in Kerpen near Cologne. These centers process the incoming data from TV stations into broadcast-ready signals, which are then fed into the regional distribution network. These technical hubs supply the various regions and catchment areas with the digital TV signal, and regional TV programs are also added to the data stream at these points.
Tanja Richter, Chief Technology Officer
By switching TV channels, we are freeing up the frequency spectrum and creating space. This expands future possibilities for our nationwide cable fiber optic network. At the same time, we are introducing NorDig-LCN, a technology standard across Germany that makes the switchover significantly more convenient for our customers. In many households, manual channel searches the following day will now be a thing of the past
