German operator Deutsche Telekom said that its 5G service based on 3.6GHz frequency is already available in around 50 cities across the country, where the telco already deployed over 1,800 antennas.
Some of the cities where the telco offers 5G via 3.6GHz 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 currently uses two frequencies for 5G. The high 3.6 GHz frequency enables the fastest download speeds. The high-speed 5G is mainly used in densely populated regions. In addition, Telekom uses the longer-wave 2.1 GHz frequency.
The telco said that it expects to deploy a total of 60,000 5G antennas by the end of the year to provide this technology to 90% of the country’s population.
By the end of March, more than 66 million people in around 5,000 towns and cities across Germany had access to the telco’s 5G network.
Currently, Deutsche Telekom operates over 50,000 antennas and provides coverage to 80% of the German population.
The telco kicked off the rollout of its 5G network in a limited number of cities across Germany at the beginning of July 2019.
The primary 5G technology currently deployed in Germany is based on the 5G non-standalone (5G NSA) network architecture, which means that current’s 5G offerings are still technically dependent on a simultaneously available 4G network (LTE).
Earlier this year, Deutsche Telekom installed that first 5G standalone antenna in Garching, which is near Munich, to carry out trials of this technology. Deutsche Telecom connected the antenna to a 5G standalone core network via cloud infrastructure. The German operator also noted that the infrastructure in the core network will also be fully upgraded to a new, cloud-based 5G architecture.
The German operator also announced plans to switch off its 3G network from 30 June. Telekom will then use the frequencies currently blocked by 3G for the 5G and 4G/LTE technologies.
