The Hague becomes Liberty Global’s latest GIGACity
Liberty Global continued its GIGACity rollout this week with the announcement that customers in The Hague region of the Netherlands will be the latest to have access to internet speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second.
From February 11th, Ziggo will start offering Gigabit broadband to more than 382,000 households in the cities of The Hague, Delft, Leidschendam, Voorburg, Wassenaar and Nootdorp. It comes after similar announcements last year in Utrecht and Hilversum and will be followed by Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Arnhem, Eindhoven, Groningen, Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Tilburg and Wageningen later this year.
Jeroen Hoencamp, CEO of VodafoneZiggo, said: “The roll-out of superfast internet in the Netherlands fits VodafoneZiggo’s ambition to ready the Netherlands for the digital future”.
“With GigaNet – the powerful network of Vodafone and Ziggo – as the common denominator, we invest hundreds of millions of euros each year in a stable and innovative network.”
The upgrade – often referred to as ‘Gigging without digging’ – is a nod to the fact that the vast majority of the speed improvements can be achieved without having to dig up the road, but simply by upgrading VodafoneZiggo’s existing network.
Gigabit broadband will allow customers to download an Ultra High Definition 4K film at a dramatically higher rate, and use multiple streaming devices at the same time. It also opens up a world of possibilities, including cloud-based gaming, 8K streaming, remote health monitoring and advanced telepresence, which could enable consumers to go ‘virtual reality shopping’ or watch live broadcasts of holographic sports events.
In total more than nine million Liberty Global customers now have access to Gigabit broadband speeds across Europe – with GIGACity rollouts in Manchester, Reading, Flanders and Brussels in Belgium, as well as UPC’s entire footprint in Switzerland, 12 cities in Poland and three in Slovakia earlier in 2019.
By providing ultra-high capacity, reliable, secure, resilient and low latency networks, GIGACities will unlock significant economic growth. According to research from international management consulting firm, Arthur D. Little, the innovation spurred by the widespread availability of Gigabit speeds are estimated to deliver between €250-660 billion of economic value per year in Europe by 2025.
A report from expert economists Oxera has also revealed that myriad social and economic benefits will result from the widespread rollout of Gigabit broadband, as increased connectivity changes the way people interact with each other. It details how the mass market rollout of Gigabit broadband has the potential to dramatically improve lives in healthcare, commuting, social interaction and the environment.
