O2 Telefonica carried out the test in the so-called Innovation Cluster in Potsdam
German carrier O2 Telefonica, owned by Spanish operator Telefonica, has achieved peak download speeds of more than 1.7 Gbps by bundling four frequency bands in 5G Standalone (5G SA) mode, the telco said in a release.
The carrier noted that the measurements were taken during a live test on the O2 network in Potsdam. The telco had been offering 5G SA to customers on the entire O2 Telefónica 5G network since October 2023.
“O2 Telefónica is actively driving the future of digital networking for consumers and for the economy. For the first time, we have bundled four frequencies in the standalone 5G network. The speeds achieved in the test illustrate the possibilities that 5G standalone offers in practice. They are a taste of further technological developments and the network expansion of the future,” said Matthias Sauder, director of networks at O2 Telefonica.
O2 Telefónica carried out the tests in partnership with Nokia in the so-called Innovation Cluster in Potsdam, where there are several locations in the O2 Telefónica mobile network in which the two telecommunications companies test the use of the latest technologies and that are also open to customers.
For the current test, O2 Telefónica used the existing 5G frequencies at 3.6 GHz and 700 MHz. In addition, the frequencies at 1800 MHz and 2.1 GHz, which are normally used for 4G, were used for 5G. By bundling these four 5G frequency bands — also known as carrier aggregation — O2 Telefónica was able to achieve new 5G peak performances on the network. With the spectrum used, up to 2 Gbps can be achieved in a laboratory environment, the telco said, adding that a Samsung S24 Ultra smartphone was used for the measurements.
O2 Telefonica now reaches more than 96% of the German population with its 5G service.
The telco’s technicians have put 5G into operation on the 3.6 GHz frequencies in cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Dresden, Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim, Munich, Essen, Düsseldorf and Cologne in recent months.
In October 2023, O2 Telefonica announced the launch of its 5G SA network in the country under the 5G Plus brand. Until this launch, the German telco had been offering 5G services through the NonStandalone (NSA) 5G architecture partly via its LTE/4G core network.
The carrier’s 5G Plus uses frequencies in the 700 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 3.6 GHz bands.
The telco said it expects its 5G SA service to reach full coverage in Germany by the end of 2025.