Deutsche Telekom highlighted that 92% of households can already access the carrier’s 5G network
German carrier Deutsche Telekom said it has expanded its mobile services at 855 locations nationwide in the past seven weeks, while it added 5G capacity at 123 locations.
In a release, the European operator also noted that it has built 194 new LTE locations while additional LTE capacities were provided at 538 locations across the country.
The telco also said that it is currently using 3.6 GHz frequencies for the provision of 5G services in more than 2,000 locations across Germany. Some of the cities where the telco offers 5G via 3.6 GHz spectrum are Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Bonn, Braunschweig, Bremen, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Jena, Kiel, Cologne, Leipzig, Ludwigsburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Saarbrücken, Schwerin, Stuttgart, Wiesbaden and Wolfsburg.
Deutsche Telekom highlighted that 92% of households can already access the carrier’s 5G network, while LTE coverage reaches 99% of the German population.
Walter Goldenits, managing director of technology at Telekom Deutschland, said: “Currently, more than 100,000 antennas are transmitting at more than 34,000 locations in the Telekom network. More than 1500 new locations are added every year, especially in the area of the motorways and railway lines. We supply Germany with 5G, our new standard in the mobile network, and are already achieving household coverage of 92%. But we’re going full throttle: by 2025, 99% of households will be able to surf our 5G network.”
Last month, Deutsche Telekom said it was using spectrum in the 700 MHz range for the provision of 5G for the first time. The European operator said that the use of the 700 MHz band improve mobile communications coverage in rural areas across Germany.
The telco added that more than 3,000 antennas in about 1,100 locations are currently transmitting 5G via 700 MHz frequencies.
Deutsche Telekom noted that the new frequencies have the potential to provide better indoor coverage, because the lower frequencies can penetrate buildings and walls better.
With this new addition, the telco is now offering 5G services via three different frequencies. In addition to the 700 MHz frequency, there are two other radio bands: the 3.6 GHz band and 2.1 GHz.
The telco kicked off the rollout of its 5G network in a limited number of cities across Germany at the beginning of July 2019.
Last week, Deutsche Telekom announced the sale of 51% of GD Towers comprising its tower assets in Germany and Austria, to Digital Bridge and Brookfield for 17.5 billion euros ($17.58 billion).
Under the terms of the deal, Telekom Deutschland and Magenta Austria will continue to have unconstrained access to the passive mobile infrastructure of GD Towers via favorable long-term lease agreements. The operators will also access to strategically critical ”golden sites” as well as preferential access to free site capacity for future network upgrades.
The German telco said this new scenario will enable the group to accelerate the path towards its targeted 50.1% share capital interest in T-Mobile US.
In April, Deutsche Telekom had increased its participation in T-Mobile US after it paid $2.4 billion to Japanese operator SoftBank Group.
