LWB ensures gigabit coverage of its housing stock

From July 2020, basic TV coverage will be included in every LWB apartment. Tenants can thus save up to 120 euros per year. The basis is a new multimedia contract.
The Leipziger Wohnungs- und Baugesellschaft mbH (LWB) has set the course for the further digitalization of its housing estates. In a Europe-wide tender, the Vodafone Group was awarded the contract for the multimedia supply of LWB properties with a high-performance broadband infrastructure.

"We are securing the gigabit supply of our housing stocks in the long term and at the same time paving the way for future-proof service offers and smart home solutions," says Iris Wolke-Haupt, Managing Director of LWB Housing and Construction.
"We are not only concerned with technical requirements and increasing efficiency, but also, for example, with enabling people to live well and safely into old age," emphasizes Ute Schäfer, Managing Director Finance and Asset Management at LWB.

"For Vodafone, the conclusion of the contract is essential," says Matthias Clemenz, Sales Director Real Estate Management at Vodafone Kabel Deutschland GmbH. LWB, with around 35,300 apartments, is one of Vodafone's most important major customers in the real estate sector.

The new contract between LWB and Vodafone will come into force from July 2020. All tenants who are already Vodafone TV customers will be informed of details by post in February/March 2020. LWB tenants will also find information on the LWB website, via the LWB Tenant App and in LWB service kiosks.

Both Vodafone and LWB subsidiary WSL Wohnen & Service Leipzig GmbH (WSL), which operates the broadband cable systems in the houses, are planning to invest in network technology. "LWB tenants can look forward to a number of improvements and benefits," reports WSL Managing Director Heiko Sander. What is new from mid-2020 is that every LWB apartment will be rented out including basic TV supply, at no extra charge to both new and existing LWB tenants. Included are 72 SD programmes and 23 TV programmes in HD.

In addition, the tenants receive a "narrow-band" Internet product including WLAN router free of charge on request. This would cover the basic needs for Internet use. These include e-mail traffic and online banking. In addition, tenants do not pay any provision fees for smart cards and additional products subject to a charge over the term of their contract with Vodafone. A basic offer of foreign-language channels is also free of charge. Further advantages can be used with combined offers of Internet/telephony/mobile telephony.

Sander: "In addition to the tenant-related Internet offers, houses are also becoming smarter, i.e. more intelligent. For example, heating systems report faults via the Internet directly to the service companies. In the future, individual consumption values per rental area will also be communicated during the year in accordance with legal requirements, so that consumers can find their way around.

"In Vodafone we have a partner that already offers its services continuously and in high quality," says Heiko Sander. For LWB tenants, the gigabit period has already begun in 2018. Almost 100 percent of LWB households can now be supplied with gigabit speed. The comparable figure for Leipzig is lower. The trade fair city was the first municipality in Saxony to be supplied with gigabit speeds by Vodafone. Vodafone expects to be able to increase the capacity in its cable fibre optic networks to up to 20 gigabits per second in the future.

WSL Wohnen & Service Leipzig GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leipziger Wohnungs- und Baugesellschaft mbH (LWB). It provides a wide range of services in the field of consumption-dependent billing of operating costs, the provision of heat and the use of renewable energies. In addition, WSL operates 49 solar power plants on roofs of the LWB and supports the digitization process of the LWB's collections.

Vodafone Germany is one of the leading communications groups in Germany. The Düsseldorf-based company provides Internet, mobile telephony, landline and television from a single source. As a digitization partner of the German economy, Vodafone's customers include start-ups, medium-sized companies and DAX-listed companies. Today, Vodafone reaches almost 24 million households in its nationwide cable-glass-fibre network, over 11 million of them with gigabit speed. With its 4G network, Vodafone reaches around 79 million people. Since mid-2019, Vodafone has also been operating the first 5G network in Germany and will reach around 10 million people in 2020. In 2021, Vodafone will expand 5G for 20 million people.