DT Close to Total 5G Coverage in Germany

Deutsche Telekom’s network upgrades in Germany have brought up 145 fresh sites and updates to 417 locations during October. The operator stated that it delivers benefits beyond just wireless connectivity.

The bulk of work last month focused on the North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, and Lower Saxony regions. The operator explained that its 5G network is approaching the reach of its 4G infrastructure, with 99 per cent of German households covered by the next-generation technology compared with 100 per cent coverage for LTE.

DT noted that the expansion and upgrade project is of particular benefit to customers on a hybrid tariff combining fixed and mobile access. The setup switches to mobile infrastructure when it offers faster data rates than DT’s fixed network, delivering 500Mb/s download and 50Mb/s up without requiring fibre access.

The operator ultimately plans for all mobile sites to employ low-band frequencies to deliver a broad range of coverage. Mid-band will be deployed in 90% of sites to ensure adequate data rates and low latency. It explained 85% of its mobile sites are also being connected to a fiber backbone, delivering data rates of 10Gb/s.