Telekom, Telefónica and Vodafone have announced current figures on the expansion around two years after the first 5G network in Germany. For the first time, Telekom discloses the number of antennas in the high band at 3.6 GHz. Telefónica cracks the mark of 1,500 antennas and at Vodafone the amount of data transported has increased.
Deutsche Telekom now supplies around 50 cities with 5G antennas on the faster 3.6 GHz spectrum, according to the group today. For the first time, the company is also disclosing the number of antennas active in the high-band, after only the total number of 5G antennas was previously mentioned. As of June 14, the number was over 1,800. Antennas in the high band are significantly more expensive to set up for Deutsche Telekom and the other network operators than to design already installed equipment at 2.1 GHz using DSS for 5G.
New high-speed locations, as Telekom calls them, are now also in Flensburg, Gelsenkirchen and Freiburg. Also new are Herne, Hamm, the Ennepe-Ruhr district, Bottrop, Offenbach am Main, Bremerhaven, Oldenburg, Bielefeld, Salzgitter, Koblenz and the Rhein-Erft district. Fast 5G in the 3.6 GHz spectrum will soon be offered to visitors at the Berlin TV tower. There have been similar projects so far in the Allianz Arena in Munich, in the Olympia Stadium in Berlin or in the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt.
5G antennas the network operator in comparison
Two years after the start of 5G, the network operator has more than 66 million people in Germany who can surf with the new standard. That corresponds to 80 percent of the population. The company has more than 50,000 5G antennas in operation, but most of them are operated using DSS in the former 3G spectrum at 2.1 GHz. The next goal is to allow 90 percent of the population to surf over 60,000 antennas with 5G by the end of 2021. With the 3G shutdown on June 30th of this year, the last 2.1 GHz frequency spectrum is to be used for 5G and LTE.
1,500 5G antenna at Telefónica/O2
Telefónica Deutschland and O2 are meanwhile celebrating the achievement of 1,500 5G antennas – the latest in Bielefeld. Telefónica is the only network operator that has so far relied exclusively on the 3.6 GHz spectrum, which is now offered in 60 cities. When it started in October 2020, 5G was initially only available in the five largest cities in Germany. By the end of the year Telefónica wants to supply 30 percent of the population with the provider O2 and the whole of Germany with 5G by 2025.
Telefónica will also use lower frequencies for the expansion in the area. In the low band at 700 MHz, 5G and LTE are to be combined using DSS. The network operator explains that this technology can be expanded via software updates. The construction of new 5G sites at 3.6 GHz, in turn, requires a complete conversion of the cellular site. While Telekom is still silent on 5G standalone, Telefónica has put its first new core network into operation in Munich. The next few weeks will be about implementing the new 5G core network nationwide in additional own data centers.
Vodafone counts 10,000 5G antennas
Vodafone has been offering 5G on three frequencies at 3.5 and 1.8 GHz and at 700 MHz since last year. At the start of July 2019, there were 25 5G stations in 20 cities only at 3.5 GHz. The original plan was to bring 5G to 20 million people by the end of 2021. The network operator currently has 10,000 5G antennas at around 3,200 locations that supply more than 25 million people. In the high band, Vodafone supports 5G standalone without LTE legacy in the core network. For this purpose, a first 5G core network and the first 5G data center have been put into operation in Frankfurt am Main. 5G SA is offered free of charge in all 5G-capable tariffs.
There is also a small insight into the amount of data transported, but without specific figures in terabytes or petabytes. The amount of data that stations with 5G antennas transmit is fifty times greater today than it was a year ago. Mobile radio stations that are already equipped with 5G technology transmitted around 20 percent of the total data volume in the Vodafone mobile network in the first week of June. Berlin leads the field in data consumption, followed by Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Düsseldorf. But the most going on is a 5G station in Weimar in an industrial area north of the train station. Commuters, travelers, company employees and machines would use the 5G network more daily than at all other Vodafone locations in Germany.
Another 9,000 antennas this year
In the current financial year, Vodafone plans to put a further 9,000 5G antennas into operation at 3,000 locations. A total of 4,000 antennas should be designed for 5G standalone by the end of the year. And by the end of 2021, the company wants to reach more than 30 million people with 5G – 50 percent more than originally targeted.