Unitymedia

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Unitymedia GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 2005 as Unity Media
resolution 2020
Reason for dissolution Rebranding on Vodafone on February 1, 2020
Seat Cologne , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management AustriaAustria Hannes Ametsreiter ( CEO )
Number of employees 2,650 (2017)
sales 2.38 billion euros (2017)
Branch Cable operator
telecommunications
media
Website unitymedia.de
Status: 2020

The Unity Media GmbH was a German cable operator based in Cologne , the result of the merger from the original 2005 iesy , ish and Tele Columbus West arose. From 2009 to 2019 the company was a subsidiary of Liberty Global through the Dutch UPC Germany Holding BV . In 2011, the cable network operator Kabel BW was taken over by Liberty Global and both companies were merged on August 8, 2012 under the Unitymedia KabelBW GmbH holding company . In December 2018 it was announced that Liberty Global should have exempted the subsidiary. Liberty has skimmed 3.8 billion euros from Unitymedia over a period of eight years. The purchase price at the time was 2.1 billion euros. In the same period, Unitymedia only paid a good 50 million euros in corporate taxes in Germany. The then parent company charged Unitymedia the interest for the takeover loans and more. Since the discontinuation of the Kabel BW brand on April 1, 2015, the company has exclusively used Unitymedia as its company name and brand. The company had 7.1 million customers in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg , Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia . 6.4 million customers have cable television, 3 million telephones and 3.2 million Internet in 12.9 million households that can be served by cable.

On May 9, 2018, the parent company Liberty Global announced that Unitymedia would be sold to the Vodafone Group . The merger of Vodafone and Unitymedia created a monopoly in cable television in Germany. The highly profitable sale to Vodafone was largely tax-free for Liberty Global. The approval of the competition authorities and the EU Commission for the merger was given on July 18, 2019. The EU approval was followed by the so-called closing on August 1, 2019 , i.e. the execution of the purchase contract, with which Unitymedia has since become a 100 percent subsidiary of Vodafone.

The Unitymedia brand was discontinued on February 1, 2020 . Unitymedia GmbH became Vodafone West GmbH .

history

Unitymedia Store in Bonn (2014)
Kabel BW Store in Stuttgart (2014)

As early as 2004, Kabel Deutschland wanted to take over the network operators ish from North Rhine-Westphalia, iesy from Hesse and Kabel Baden-Württemberg for a total of 2.7 billion euros. With the merger, the company would have become the sole provider of cable television, which is why the Federal Cartel Office rejected it in the intended form at the time. About a year later it became known that iesy had decided to take over ish again. This step resulted in the second largest German cable network operator. In addition, iesy announced that it would also acquire the shares in Tele Columbus . The Federal Cartel Office approved the takeover, but parts of Tele Columbus were sold back to Orion Cable in September 2006. Only the Tele-Columbus customers from Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia stayed with the holding company called “Unity Media”.

This designation became the company's official name in 2007, and the ish and iesy brands disappeared from the market. In addition, the product range was standardized and the first triple play package was presented. In 2009, Liberty Global announced that it would take over Unitymedia for EUR 3.65 billion. As an alternative, the previous owners Apollo Management and BC Partners had also considered an IPO of the company according to media reports. At the time of the acquisition, Unitymedia had 6.4 million customers. In the early 2000s, Liberty Global wanted to acquire Deutsche Telekom's entire cable network , but the antitrust authorities prevented that. As of September 30, 2010 Unitymedia had around 4.5 million basic cable connection customers (including 1.5 million digital TV subscribers), 726 thousand Internet subscribers and 726 thousand telephony subscribers. The broadband cable network of Unitymedia reached over 8.8 million households.

In March 2011, Liberty Global announced that it would also take over Kabel BW after Unitymedia. Both cable network operators were merged in mid-2012 under the name Unitymedia KabelBW. Unitymedia and Kabel BW were initially retained as the new company's brands. In December 2012, the Federal Cartel Office approved the merger of Unitymedia and Kabel BW, subject to certain conditions. For example, housing companies had to be granted an extraordinary right of termination. Deutsche Telekom and NetCologne lodged a complaint against the decision of the antitrust authorities. Among other things, it was argued that the conditions imposed were insufficient for effective competition. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court accepted the complaint and subsequently reversed the decision of the Federal Cartel Office in August 2013. The merger of the two cable network operators should be checked again by the Federal Cartel Office.

The company appealed to the Federal Court of Justice . In February 2015 it was finally announced that Unitymedia KabelBW had reached an out-of-court settlement with Deutsche Telekom and Netcologne. The two competitors withdrew their complaint against the merger of the cable network operators. The judgment of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court thus became irrelevant. In the course of the agreement, Liberty Global paid Deutsche Telekom and Netcologne EUR 183 million. The company then standardized its branding so that all products in Baden-Württemberg are also offered under the name “Unitymedia” instead of “Kabel BW”. From 2014 the cable network operator was sponsor of Borussia Dortmund . In addition, the basketball teams of the White Wings Hanau as well as the RheinStars Cologne , the SAP Arena in Mannheim , the BusinessRun Cologne , the ZOOM Erlebniswelt in Gelsenkirchen and, since May 2018, the VfL Bochum 1848 eSport were supported.

  • Logos

  • 2005 to 2007

  • 2007 to 2011

  • 2012

  • until 2015

  • 2015 to 2020

Locations

Company network (2014)
4-hole multimedia socket (MMD)
UM push-on adapter (POA)
HD module & Smartcard "UM02"
HD Receiver and Smartcard (2013)
Horizon HD Recorder (2014)
DOCSIS 3.0 cable gateway with built-in DHCP server from Cisco Systems (2012)
High-speed cable router modem Connect-Box with improved WLAN function (2016)
New cable router modem Vodafone station with DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 (2019)

In the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia , Hesse and Baden-Württemberg , 12.9 million households are connected to the Unitymedia network. The company's head office is located at Aachener Strasse No. 746–750 in Cologne-Müngersdorf, in the immediate vicinity of the Rheinenergiestadion . The technical center is located in Kerpen on the A4 ; as a playout center , it primarily takes care of the operation of the cable network. Customer service for private customers is provided from Bochum , while for business customers from Heidelberg . Other Unitymedia locations are Stuttgart and Villingen-Schwenningen . The headquarters of Kabel BW was in Heidelberg. In addition, the company was active in Marburg , Hesse, until 2012 , but the branch there was closed as part of the merger between Unitymedia and Kabel BW. It is now being continued by another operator.

network

The Coax - / fiber optic line -Netz or hybrid fiber - coax -Netz (short HFC) Unitymedia extends from Bielefeld , Münster and Dortmund in the north, through Fulda , Frankfurt and Heidelberg to Reutlingen , Ulm and Freiburg in the south. In 2010 work began on upgrading the cable network to the EuroDOCSIS 3.0 broadband standard . 98 percent of all 12.7 million households that can be reached are now equipped with it. In 2011 Unitymedia was the first German cable network operator to provide an Internet connection with more than 100 Mbit / s. With EuroDOCSIS 3.0, Unitymedia offered download rates of up to 400 Mbit / s, theoretically up to 600 Mbit / s are possible for downloads with the standard. Depending on the tariff, up to 40 Mbit / s was offered for upload. With the changeover to EuroDOCSIS 3.1, Currently up to 1 Gbit / s in download and 50 Mbit / s in upload. One Unitymedia customer generated an average of 90 GB of traffic per month in 2017. The total data volume in the Unitymedia network increases by 50% annually. However, connections with high data traffic were not throttled.

In addition to the HFC, business customers were also occasionally offered pure fiber connections. Up to 10,000 Mbit / s (10 Gbit / s) were possible for both download and upload. For this purpose, new fiber optic connections were laid to the respective customer.

Products

Unitymedia offers various communication and entertainment services via its broadband cable network . In addition to television and radio programs, the company has also been offering Internet and telephone connections since the early 2000s, which are positioned as alternatives to DSL connections.

In the last few years, Unitymedia has focused on combined offers. More and more customers opted for the company's combined tariffs. They include either internet and telephony (2-play) or television, internet and telephony ( 3-play ). This strategy was pushed further , particularly with the Horizon platform that Unitymedia introduced in 2013. For business customers, Unitymedia offers tariffs under the “Unitymedia Business” brand that combine Internet and telephony. Individual fiber optic connections and symmetrical bandwidths are also available (depending on availability).

Technical requirements

The company provides the following components for this purpose:

  • a multimedia socket (MMD) with three or four connections for television, radio and data communication or a corresponding adapter ( POA ).
  • for Internet & telephone: a cable modem or cable router modem , which enables the connection from the computer to the CMTS and thus the Internet. An MTA (Multimedia Terminal Adapter) is already integrated in the current connection terminals, which enables VoC via the television cable. Pure cable modems from the manufacturers Cisco Systems and Motorola are only available from existing customers these days. Since August 1, 2016, customers have been able to freely choose the router. So you can opt for a Unitymedia rental device or your own device. However, the service provided by your own private router is limited; this is where the company's responsibility at the multimedia socket (MMD) ends.
  • for digital television ( DVB-C ) depending on the product (e.g. for HD programming): either a video-on-demand capable HD receiver, a cable-compatible digital HD video recorder (HD-DVR), a CI + module or a cable-compatible digital receiver (possibly already integrated in the television set) and a smart card to decrypt the digital signals of private programs and pay-TV offers from television stations.

watch TV

Free TV

Unitymedia initially encrypted the digital TV offering with Nagravision Aladin , which is no longer considered secure. As part of the competition law review of the merger of Unitymedia with Kabel BW, the company announced that it would abandon basic encryption. Since January 2013, customers have been able to receive unencrypted standard quality (SD) TV channels in addition to public broadcasters. A DVB-C tuner is sufficient to watch over 70 digital programs.

Analog TV broadcasting was ended in June 2017 and in return the number of free-to-air SD and HD channels was steadily increased.

Pay TV

A receiver or CI module and a smart card are required for pure pay TV television as well as private free TV channels in HD quality. There are different types of smart cards in circulation, for example with the designation "UM01" and "UM02" as well as "I02" and "I12". The company uses so-called virtual smart cards for the Horizon platform, so that customers no longer need their own smart cards.

At the end of 2005 Unitymedia founded the pay TV channel Arena . This prevailed against Premiere in a bidding process for the television rights for the first and second Bundesliga . The Unitymedia subsidiary received the rights for three years. Although recorded Arena until the end of 2006, approximately one million subscribers, however, wrote from the start in the red. In mid-2007, Arena passed all of the Bundesliga rights on to Premiere , but received a license for marketing via cable and satellite. In 2007, Arena became the television platform arenaSAT , which broadcast various special-interest channels via satellite. The operation was finally stopped in 2010.

In 2012 Unitymedia returned to the pay-TV sector and announced a comprehensive collaboration with Sky Deutschland . As part of this cooperation, Unitymedia offers its customers various Sky channels in HD quality. In addition, the cable operators still offers from tividi encrypted emerged packages DigitalTV HIGHLIGHTS , DigitalTV ALLSTARS , DigitalTV INTERNATIONAL and the erotic package to, and Unity Media Library . The pay-per-view offer cinema on demand , however, was discontinued on July 1, 2014, as Sky also offers this service with Sky Select .

In addition to the Horizon platform, the company has also been offering Maxdome films and series since 2015 . The online video library thus became an integral part of the tariffs of a cable network operator for the first time. The billing of Maxdome is done directly via Unitymedia. The company also planned to work with Netflix . In practice, the Netflix app is offered on the Horizon platform on channel 997 and as an app. With the takeover of Unitymedia by the Vodafone Group , the Horizon platform will not be further developed in Germany and will be replaced in the long term.

radio

Mainly regional VHF radio programs are fed in via the cable television network. These are not affected by the analog shutdown in June 2017. In addition, a large number of radio programs are digitally transmitted unencrypted via DVB-C. There is also Stingray Music, previously Music Choice, for a fee . Here are round the clock without commercial breaks or word post search divisions play encrypted music. DAB and the successor standard DAB + are not fed into the cable network.

Internet

Unitymedia’s internet tariffs for consumers include speeds of 60 and 120 Mbit / s for download as well as 3 and 6 Mbit / s for upload and in the combination packages 30/3 Mbit / s, 150/10 Mbit / s and 400/20 Mbit / s. The highest speed of 400 Mbit / s was activated in the network in January 2016. The latency is quite high with over 10 ms with cable internet . The company intends to achieve a value of less than 1 ms in the next few years. In principle, a cable connection contract is not a prerequisite, the Internet connection can also be booked with Unitymedia without a television package. In 2011, the company was one of the first network operators to switch its connections from IPv4 to the IPv6 protocol. Since 2013, only IPv6 addresses have been assigned to new private customers. The problematic dual-stack lite mode is used here, which significantly hinders numerous common applications on the customer side (see criticism section ). The booking of a fixed IP address and IPv4 is only possible for business connections. In mid-May 2015, the previously independent Autonomous System from Unitymedia was fully integrated into that of the parent company, since then it has only been a stub AS and no longer announced any routes.

In November 2015, the high-speed cable router modem Connect-Box Compal CH7465LG from the manufacturer Compal was presented. This device has a better WLAN with 2.4 and 5 GHz in parallel as well as an Internet upload speed of up to 20 Mbit / s and a download ( LAN ) of up to 400 Mbit / s as well as the option to switch to pure bridge -Mode. It was the successor of the TC7200 the manufacturer Technicolor .

Since the end of 2017, the company has been working on the introduction of the DOCSIS 3.1 standard in order to achieve data rates of up to 10 Gbit / s in the downstream and 1 Gbit / s in the upstream. In Bochum, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Mannheim and Heilbronn, a start was made to offer 1 Gbit / s for download and 50 Mbit / s for upload in conjunction with DOCSIS 3.1 and a FRITZ! Box 6591 Cable .

Business customers were also able to book pure Internet tariffs, which means that a Hitron CGNv4 modem is used , which usually does not contain its own routing functions. As a result, for technical reasons, no telephone services are available via the modem; alternatively, a FRITZ! Box 6490 Cable including telephony was used. Download speeds of up to 600 Mbit / s and uploads of up to 20 Mbit / s are offered.

In addition, business customers can use a pure fiber optic connection, with which 10 Gbit / s can be achieved in download and upload. This performance can be multiplied by using several parallel fiber connections.

With the takeover of Unitymedia by Vodafone, a new cable router modem, the Vodafone station Arris TG3442DE from the manufacturer Arris International, was introduced in 2019 . As a new standard modem, it is DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 compatible. However, this device struggles with some WLAN problems.

Telephony

Unitymedia does not offer traditional landline telephony via analog or ISDN connection or cable route via the cable television network , but only offers Voice over Cable for the pure cable modems and cable router modems and for the Fritz! Boxes . The cable modems or cable router modems for the network termination available from Unitymedia have analog ports ( from interface via TAE and / or RJ11 plug) for connecting analog telephones or fax machines. The connection of ISDN devices is not possible with the standard devices used by Unitymedia such as the Technicolor TC 7200 , the Connect-Box and the Vodafone-Station , which supports a maximum of two phone numbers or lines via two analog ports. Unitymedia offers the OEM version FRITZ! Box 6490 Cable from AVM with the “comfort option” , which is subject to a surcharge. In addition to the analog ports, it is also equipped with an S0 interface for connecting ISDN end devices and also has DECT . However, it should be noted that not all ISDN service features are mapped or supported via the existing S0 port on the FRITZ! Box and via the Unitymedia broadband cable network . In addition, this configuration does not allow an emergency or remote power supply because the CMTS does not offer this standard function of the classic exchange in the DSL area. This is problematic with house emergency calls and with intrusion alarm systems .

Unitymedia customers can choose from various flat rates for German, European or international landlines and mobile networks . In 2014, the magazine connect tested Unitymedia telephony in its annual landline test and rated it “very good”. Unitymedia and the Kabel BW brand took second and third place behind Deutsche Telekom. Among other things, the comparatively fast connection setup was rated positively. However, as in previous years, this network test once again clearly showed that the reference values ​​of classic ISDN connections are nowhere near being achieved when it comes to criteria such as call setup or speech delay times.

Cellular

Since 2011 Unitymedia customers have also been able to conclude mobile phone contracts, for which the company cooperated with Telefónica Germany . In November 2016, the Unitymedia stores and online sales of smartphones and tablets began. Due to the takeover by the Vodafone Group , the mobile communications offer and the collaboration with O 2 will also be discontinued at Unitymedia, as has already happened with Vodafone Kabel Deutschland , and Vodafone mobile communications products will only be offered for new customers or new contracts.

criticism

In 2007 the consumer advice center North Rhine-Westphalia issued a warning to Unitymedia. The reason was the price increase for analog cable television , which gave the impression that the digital connection would generate fewer costs in the future. The price increase led to numerous complaints from affected customers. Although the company granted an extraordinary right of termination , this step did not meet the legal requirements in the opinion of the consumer association. She sued the Cologne Regional Court for an injunction, and in June 2008 Unitymedia issued a declaration of omission . Cable customers later complained that Unitymedia was charging unwanted TV packages. The company was also criticized in 2009 for misleading advertising for digital television.

Unclean customer catch

In 2010, the company was accused of asking for access to apartments on the pretext of measuring the antenna level there. In fact, the "media consultants" wanted to offer potential customers additional contracts. Upon request, Unitymedia made it clear that the sales force was clearly prohibited from using necessary measurements as an excuse to initiate sales talks. Nevertheless, according to the c't magazine , internal documents contained such instructions. As early as 2009 there were reports that Unitymedia employees presented themselves to tenants on behalf of the Dortmund housing company DOGEWO21 and then sold cable contracts. At that time, Unitymedia also stated that such behavior would not be accepted. At the same time, Unitymedia referred to its legitimate interest in carrying out checks on non-payers.

Dispute over network charges

In 2013, Unitymedia KabelBW removed North German and Bavarian broadcasting from analogue cable television, which viewers criticized. The background to this was the differing views of the cable network operators and the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF , which have not paid any fees for feeding their programs since the end of 2012. According to the North German Broadcasting Corporation, around 30 percent of all households with a cable connection were affected by the change. Unitymedia KabelBW stated that the broadcasters concerned would not value the distribution of their programs and replaced some of the programs with offers from RTL Group and ProSiebenSat.1 Media . In October 2013, the company also filed a lawsuit against ZDF with the Mainz Administrative Court . In April 2018, the long-standing dispute between the public broadcasters and Unitymedia was settled and the newly concluded agreement with ARD is initially valid for ten years, with ZDF for six years. On January 22, 2019, Unitymedia removed Deutschlandradio from the cable network, as the broadcaster had no interest in broadcasting it. Unitymedia stated that the broadcaster had terminated the distribution contract for Deutschlandfunk , Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Deutschlandfunk Nova at the end of 2018. After one year of abstinence, Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Deutschlandfunk Nova and the new special channel Documents & Debates have been fed digitally via DVB-C since January 21, 2020.

Net neutrality

In the course of the debate about network neutrality and the definition of the technical and legal network termination, a. Unitymedia has also been criticized, since since 2013 only forced routers have been used in the tariffs for private customers . The operation of own hardware on the connection was restricted as a result. Only in the tariffs for business customers for the pure Internet connection without telephony were transparent modems provided that allow the technically perfect connection of their own hardware. In this context, the widespread introduction of the Technicolor TC 7200 combination device, desired by many customers, turned out to be particularly problematic on July 1, 2013. The TC 7200 offers cable modem, LAN and WLAN router in one device. Both Unitymedia and Kabel BW had deactivated the option to switch to pure bridge mode in this device . This device also struggles with technical problems, such as poor WiFi speed. This is particularly true in connection with the also criticized implementation of the IPv6 Dual-Stack Lite . The router requirement was lifted on August 1, 2016.

Unitymedia WifiSpot

In May 2016 Unitymedia announced that their customers would get a WiFi hotspot using the customer's WiFi router . The customer must first register on the Unitymedia website in order to be able to use the Unitymedia WifiSpot . Customers who do not object within four weeks automatically open their router to "guests". A second WLAN is set up on the Unitymedia rental router. The disturbance liability assumes Unitymedia. The consumer advice center North Rhine-Westphalia sued the company because of this practice and won the first instance at the Cologne Regional Court . The Cologne Higher Regional Court, however, dismissed the action, stating that the users' express consent was not required. However, customers must be able to opt out of the system by making an objection. The North Rhine-Westphalia consumer center has appealed to the Federal Court of Justice . The BGH ruled that a right of objection is sufficient so that Unitymedia has not violated the customer's rights.

Cable router compulsory exchange

As part of the network modernization in connection with the introduction of the new Docsis 3.1 transmission standard, Unitymedia also exchanged existing customers for a current Fritzbox. The Fritzbox models 6591 (currently with Fritz OS 07.03) and 6490 (currently with Fritz OS 07.10.) Are affected. Since all customers were to be converted to Docsis 3.1 in the medium to long term, many users could also be threatened with switching to the Vodafone Station cable router modem , which was struggling with technical problems at the time. During the changeover, the customer was only given 10 days to make this change; if the deadline was exceeded, there was no internet or telephony, as the old box was automatically deactivated. The old hardware had to be returned within 14 days. At the beginning of 2020, Unitymedia customers were forced to replace their cable router with the unsightly situation that the new Fritzbox Cable 6591 has a branded Fritz OS 7.03, while the old Fritzbox Cable 6490 was already running on a branded Fritz OS 7.10. This leads to problems when changing the cable router and possibly also during further operation. Changing the configuration from the old branded white Cable 6490 to a new branded Cable 6591 was not possible.

Web links

Commons : Unitymedia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The imprint of the Unitymedia website. Retrieved August 18, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b libertyglobal.com: Annual Report 2017
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  4. ^ Ramy Caspi: Unitymedia adds mobile telephony to product range. ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. mvnodynamics.com. December 5, 2011, accessed June 29, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mvnodynamics.com
  5. ↑ US group wins the bidding war for Kabel BW. In: Handelsblatt. March 21, 2011, accessed March 16, 2015 .
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  8. ^ Liberty Global operations Germany. (No longer available online.) Libertyglobal.com, archived from the original on October 2, 2015 ; accessed on September 30, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.libertyglobal.com
  9. ↑ Unitymedia purchase. vodafone.de, accessed on May 9, 2018 .
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