Vodafone GmbH is a mobile telecommunications operator in Germany headquartered in Düsseldorf. It provides mobile phone,

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement *** LTE Advanced Pro * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq * ...

, 5G,

cable internet In telecommunications, cable Internet access, shortened to cable Internet, is a form of broadband Internet access which uses the same infrastructure as a cable television. Like digital subscriber line and fiber to the premises services, cable In ...

, landlines,

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

, and IPTV services. As of the third quarter of 2021, Vodafone GmbH has more than 31 million mobile customers in Germany, making it the third-largest provider of mobile phone services in Germany. The company's headquarters are in the suburb of

Heerdt Heerdt is one of the older quarters of the city of Düsseldorf, part of Borough 4. Heerdt and its neighbouring quarters Oberkassel, Niederkassel and Lörick lie on the left side of the river Rhine, opposite to the other districts of Düsseldorf a ...

in Düsseldorf, with regional offices throughout Germany. Vodafone Germany's main competitors are

Telekom Deutschland Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

(Deutsche Telekom's German private customer unit) and Telefónica Germany. Vodafone Germany's network serves both prepaid and

postpaid The postpaid mobile phone is a mobile phone for which service is provided by a prior arrangement with a mobile network operator. The user in this situation is billed after the fact according to their use of mobile services at the end of each mont ...

customers on GSM and LTE ( Long Term Evolution). In July 2019, Vodafone started providing 5G services. At the end of 2010, Vodafone had 36.676 million mobile phone or mobile internet customers and 3.945 million customers with a DSL / VDSL connection.

History

The company in its present form resulted from Vodafone's takeover of the German engineering group Mannesmann GmbH in 2000. On 8 December 1989, the West German

Federal Ministry for Posts and Telecommunications Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

( de; one of several predecessors of the present-day

Bundesnetzagentur The Federal Network Agency (german: Bundesnetzagentur or ) is the German regulatory office for electricity, gas, telecommunications, post and railway markets. It is a federal agency of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Acti ...

) awarded the second digital

GSM-900 GSM frequency bands or frequency ranges are the cellular frequencies designated by the ITU for the operation of GSM mobile phones and other mobile devices. Frequency bands GSM frequency usage around the world A dual-band 900/1800 device i ...

(also known as D-Netz ( de; ''D-Network'' in Germany) network in Germany to Mannesmann, as the first private company in Germany to break the monopoly of the telecommunications services operated by Deutsche Bundespost (now

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

). This licence was subsequently expanded to cover the former East Germany after

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

in 1991. Mannesmann subsequently began operations of its mobile network on 30 June 1992. It was rebranded Vodafone D2 in 2002. In February 2011, Vodafone Germany started providing IPTV via DSL and VDSL connections. In April 2011, Vodafone Germany started to distribute Disney content via IPTV. Following Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone Germany started selling the Apple iPhone 4S in September 2011. As of 2014, the company owns around 75% of

Kabel Deutschland Vodafone Kabel Deutschland GmbH is the largest cable television operator in Germany. Kabel Deutschland was subject to a hostile takeover bid by the British Vodafone Group in September 2013; the deal was approved in December 2013 and finalised on ...

and in 2019 Unitymedia was merged with Vodafone. In February 2020, the Unitymedia brand will be phased out from market, according to Vodafone Germany.

Sponsoring

The company sponsored the AMG-Mercedes team in the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

Blancpain Sprint Series The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, officially known as Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS for sponsorship reasons, formerly the FIA GT Series, is a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) ...

and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.

References

External links

* Vodafone Companies based in Düsseldorf Mobile phone companies of Germany {{Telecom-company-stub