DT's 5G Network Is Now Available for Over 16 Million Germans

Over 16 million people in Germany can now use Deutsche Telekom's commercial 5G network. The company supplies more than 1,000 towns and communities completely or partly with the new mobile communications standard. By mid-July, as many as 40 million people throughout Germany will be benefiting from 5G.

"This is the largest 5G initiative in Germany. We are bringing 5G to urban and rural areas for half of the German population. And we are now reaching this milestone earlier than planned," emphasizes Telekom Deutschland CEO Dirk Wössner. "Despite the Corona crisis, we have expanded 5G without detours. By the end of the year, there will even be 40,000 antennas fit for 5G.

The roll-out is made possible by the variable use of mobile phone frequencies. DT uses 15 megahertz (MHz) in the 2.1 gigahertz band for LTE and 5G. Of this, 5 MHz come from the previous 3G spectrum and will be rededicated. In addition, the company acquired 10 MHz of the current 3G spectrum from another provider ahead of schedule. DT had originally purchased this spectrum for use from 2021, but by purchasing it ahead of schedule, the Group has tripled the spectrum previously used for the new technologies in this frequency range.

With this combination of available frequencies, Deutsche Telekom is significantly accelerating the roll-out of 5G, especially in rural areas. LTE will also receive a further boost from the technology push. Customers will receive an additional frequency band for using LTE and thus more bandwidth. The use of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) will provide additional spectrum for LTE customers. As a result, they too will be able to surf even faster than before.

DSS and the additional spectrum increase the data rate: In rural areas, speeds are sometimes more than doubled. Here, customers can now surf at up to 225 Mbit/s. In urban areas, peak speeds are 600-800 Mbit/s. Not only customers with the new 5G smartphones benefit from these speeds, but also customers in the LTE network. In large cities such as Berlin or Cologne, the 5G antennas transmit at 3.6 GHz with a data rate of up to 1 Gbit/s and more.