Today, Ziggo will restart superfast internet with download speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second in Rotterdam Hoogvliet. On September 15, gigabit speeds will be available throughout the Rotterdam region, including Vlaardingen, Pernis and Rozenburg. Ziggo aims to offer gigabit speeds on its existing fixed network everywhere in the Netherlands within 18 months.
After Utrecht, Hilversum and The Hague, customers in Rotterdam Hoogvliet can now enjoy gigabit speeds, too. In the coming weeks, a Ziggo service team will be ready in Hoogvliet to answer questions in the most personal way. As from September 15, when the rest of Rotterdam follows, there will already be more than 1 million gigabit connections altogether. That’s more than 370,000 households and business customers in Rotterdam who can switch to this fast internet connection. Since Ziggo's glass-fibre coaxial network is already in place, it won’t be necessary to dig up any streets or gardens.
Barbara Kathmann, Councillor for the Economy and Neighbourhoods: “Internet is now as normal as water and electricity in your home. A basic need. The people of Rotterdam should therefore be able to rely on a fast, secure and reliable connection and a wide choice of internet services. Completion of the gigabit internet network is an important step in our ambition to make Rotterdam a digital example for the rest of the world by 2025. It is an objective that requires pioneering work that we cannot do alone. That’s why we have entered into partnerships with players like Ziggo .”
Soon to follow Rotterdam, will be Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Arnhem, Eindhoven, Groningen, Nijmegen and Wageningen. By the end of 2020, Ziggo will offer gigabit speeds to nearly half of the 7.2 million households and commercial properties connected to the Ziggo network.
Ready for the Future
"The roll out of superfast internet in the Netherlands is fully in line with VodafoneZiggo's ambition to prepare the Netherlands for the digital future," said Jeroen Hoencamp, CEO of VodafoneZiggo. "Under the name GigaNet, the powerful VodafoneZiggo network, we’re investing hundreds of millions every year in a stable, innovative and safe network. ‘Gigabit without digging’ is an important part of that investment. " Thanks to all these investments to make our network suitable for gigabit speeds, not only will customers who opt for the fastest connection benefit, all customers will benefit from a faster and more stable network without having to do anything."
Network Investment
Rotterdam’s cable network was prepared technically for gigabit internet in 2019. Ziggo technicians installed more than 560,000 new connectors in homes and replaced more than 53,000 cables in 29,214 street cabinets. That’s more than 70 kilometres of new network cabling in street cabinets and district exchanges. Thanks to such work, super-fast internet is not made available per street or district, but Ziggo can switch on entire cities or regions at once.
One gigabit per second is ten times the current average 100 Mbps connection speed in the Netherlands. It allows people in one household to simultaneously view and download 4K films and HD TV programmes to multiple devices. They can download a 5 GB HD film in 42 seconds instead of the seven minutes it takes with a normal internet connection.
Signal 97% Fibre-Optic
Ziggo combines fibre-optics and coaxial cabling in its ''hybrid'' fixed network. An average of 97% of the route taken by an internet signal from the studio to a home, for instance, is through the Ziggo fibre-optic network. Only the final leg, from the local switch box to the living room, goes through coaxial cable. Ziggo uses DOCSIS 3.1 technology for this coaxial leg, which will enable exceedingly high internet speeds and already boasts a download speed of up to 1 Gbps. Within a few years, this technology will see speeds soar up to 10 gigabits per second. Upload speeds will also increase over time.
GIGA Subscription
Ziggo's new ‘GIGA’ subscription consists of: internet up to 1 Gbps download and 50 Mbps upload, the most extensive TV channel package on the interactive Mediabox Next, Ziggo Movies & Series (Home of HBO), Ziggo Sport, the Ziggo GO app and a landline telephone connection. All the benefits of gigabit speed are now also available to small and medium-sized business customers.