Vodafone Germany said its 5G network is now available to more than 35 million people across the country.
The company had previously said it aimed to service over 30 million people with 5G in Germany by the end of this year. The telco also said that its 5G network is expected to be available to 60 million people by 2023.
“We are activating the most modern 5G network in Europe,” said Vodafone Germany CEO Hannes Ametsreiter. “In the coming year, every 5G antenna will also become a 5G standalone antenna. With 5G, we not only bring high bandwidths, but also extremely short response times and network slicing to people and factories. Our 5G network then reacts as quickly as the human nervous system and needs less and less power to transmit data.”
The executive also said that the entire 5G network will rely on standalone architecture by 2023.
Vodafone has recently put 5,000 more 5G antennas into operation in urban and rural areas across Germany. A total of 15,000 5G antennas at 5,000 locations are now live, the telco said.
Earlier this year, Vodafone Germany launched its 5G standalone (SA) network in partnership with Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and OPPO.
Vodafone has already upgraded 3,000 sites to SA 5G.The new network was initially launched in some major cities including Frankfurt, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf. The telco had previously said that it aims to have 4,000 live sites in the 5G SA network by the end of the year.
Vodafone is also is installing new 5G antennas from technology partner Ericsson in its 5G network, which transmit data in a significantly more energy-efficient manner. In comparison to previous antenna technology, around 40% energy can be saved in the transmission of data. Vodafone has been testing the first 150 of these 5G antennas for several and aims to convert 900 5G antennas to this energy-saving technology by the end of the current financial year.
Vodafone Germany said that it will be operating a total of ten 5G data centers by 2023, with the aim of managing the new 5G SA network. The first data center is already operational in Frankfurt, while new 5G data centers in Berlin and Munich will go online later this year. The other 5G data centers will follow by 2023.
In Weissach, Vodafone recently fully equipped the first development center for the automotive industry with 5G standalone technology. Vodafone, Porsche and Here are working on a feasibility study on a real-time warning system for cars so that drivers are warned of potential obstacles that are not even visible to them.
Vodafone initially launched its 5G network in Germany in 2019, on 3.5 GHz frequencies that it acquired from Telefónica in 2018.
