telecommunications
Cell phone companies fulfill the central cell phone network expansion obligation
A transmission mast for the 5G mobile communications standard for telephony and the Internet. photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
In the multi-billion mobile frequency auctions, network operators commit to certain expansion steps. Shortly before the implementation deadline comes into force, the network operators are now announcing good news.
Two weeks before a deadline, Germany’s mobile phone network operators have fulfilled a state expansion obligation according to their own statements. In all federal states, at least 98 percent of households are supplied with bandwidths of 100 or more megabits per second, said Vodafone, Telefónica (O2) and Deutsche Telekom today separately.
At the beginning of November, the companies had still missed this requirement in some federal states, but after that the expansion made rapid progress. Vodafone, for example, operates a good 26,000 mobile radio stations nationwide, 1054 were added this year as 4G/LTE systems or were technically upgraded.
The obligation to expand comes from the 2019 frequency auction. The conditions at that time state that each of the three network operators must achieve the 98 percent target in each federal state by the end of December. With this goal, the three companies are now all reporting completion.
The requirement was considered relatively strict. Your previous obligation from the 2015 auction was formulated more softly, at that time the regulatory authority had only prescribed a 97 percent minimum value per federal state, based on a 50 megabit coverage. At the end of 2019, not a single German network operator had achieved this obligation to expand. While Telekom and Vodafone only just missed the target, Telefónica failed very clearly at the time and was only able to report that it had achieved its goal with a great deal of delay.
Network operators achieve minimum standards
Telefónica also made better progress this time. The company announced that where there was previously a minimum supply of 50 megabits per second, the cell phone sites have been converted and upgraded to at least 100 Mbit per second. A Telekom spokesman said something similar: “We achieve LTE coverage of at least 98 percent with 100 Mbit/s in all federal states.” On a nationwide average, LTE household coverage is even 99 percent.
However, the three network operators will possibly miss another part of the comprehensive expansion obligations: by the end of the year they have to close 500 white spots – ie areas in which not a single network operator has yet offered 100 megabits per second. When asked how far along they were, a Vodafone spokesman said: “Noticeable progress” is also being made in closing the white spots.
The information on compliance with the expansion targets comes from the telecommunications companies themselves. After the deadline, the Federal Network Agency will check the company information.
The network operators rely on the 4G/LTE radio standard to meet the said 98 percent coverage. Separately, they are expanding their 5th mobile generation (5G) network, which enables even faster transmission of large amounts of data. With 5G, Vodafone now has household coverage of 80 percent. Telekom recently announced a value of 94 percent and Telefónica (O2) of 75 percent.