Today, I noticed a report on Teltarif that Vodafone Germany is looking into buying Kable Deutschland, one of the big German cable Internet (and TV) providers. It is speculated that the price would be around 2.5 billion euros. Quite a bit of money and yet another impressive indication that mobile only networks are a thing of the past. Both Vodafone and Telefonica O2 are already offering DSL services in Germany today but I guess those activities would pale against buying a cable operator. In my opinion, having strong fixed and wireless assets is a must to offer an all in one communication solution to private customers for both home and while they are away. And I guess femtocells / home gateways with 3G and Wifi built-in together with local IP access from 3G mobile phones would be an important part of such a strategy.
Sorry for not linking to the original article, I posted this entry from my mobile phone.