Vodafone Germany had inked a partnership with German railway operator Deutsche Bahn to boost 5G connectivity last year
Vodafone Germany has already built more than 225 mobile masts since the start of 2023 to upgrade communications on railways, the telco said in a release.
In April 2022, Vodafone Germany had inked a partnership with German railway operator Deutsche Bahn, with the aim of deploying 5G Standalone (SA) across routes connecting the country’s major cities by 2025.
The carrier has implemented 1,237 construction projects nationwide in the past ten months. As part of the network expansion, 225 new cell phone masts were built near the tracks, closing many dead spots for rail travelers. The most new construction projects were in North Rhine-Westphalia (36), Bavaria (31) and Lower Saxony (29).
“Thanks to the new buildings and the numerous modernization measures on the existing antennas, we were able to noticeably improve the mobile phone coverage for rail passengers and commuters,” said Vodafone technology head Tanja Richter.
Vodafone noted that the new locations built this year all benefit from LTE technology, 66 locations also benefit from 5G technology and more than 200 from 5G SA technology.
The telco also said that 5G SA is already available on more than 50% of the railway lines in the country, which represents more than 15,000 kilometers of rail.
Meanwhile, 1,800 out of 3,250 train stations across Germany are already connected to Vodafone’s 5G network and more than 600 provide indoor coverage. This includes railway stations in Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig and Hamburg.
In addition, Vodafone said it will be the first mobile phone provider to activate its 5G SA network on a large scale on Germany’s ICE routes by 2025.
Vodafone Germany recently said its 5G network currently reaches 90% of the country’s population.
Meanwhile, the operator’s 5G Standalone network serves 45% of the German population, the carrier added. Vodafone previously said that 5G SA technology will reach nationwide coverage by 2025.
Vodafone currently operates more than 26,000 mobile radio stations in Germany, including almost 15,000 5G stations.
Earlier this year, Vodafone Germany said it expected to activate 2,700 new 5G sites with a total of 8,000 antennas in the first half of 2023.
Vodafone Germany had launched its 5G Standalone network last year in partnership with Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and Oppo. For the 5G expansion, Vodafone is currently relying on frequencies in the 3.6 GHz, 1.8 GHz and 700 MHz bands in large urban areas, residential areas and suburbs and rural areas across Germany.
Vodafone initially launched its 5G network in Germany in 2019, using 3.5 GHz frequencies that it acquired from Telefónica in 2018.
