German carrier Deutsche Telekom confirmed it has started the technical tests to operate 5G base stations in the cities of Düsseldorf, Halle/Saale and Ingolstadt.
The operator noted that these 5G antennas now operate on the 2.1 GHz frequency.
The company has already installed 54 antennas in Düsseldorf to cover the inner city and the neighborhood of Derendorf. In Ingolstadt, DT already operates 12 5G antennas and plans to reach 51 within a week, to cover the old town area, a train station and parts of an industrial park in the south western part of the city. Also, a total of 28 5G antennas are now active in Halle/Saale to provide coverage in the eastern part of the industrial area next to the city center and the new town.
The operator said that it is currently conducting technical tests of 5G antennas operating with 2.1 GHz before commercially launching the technology.
Deutsche Telekom plans to operate over 40,000 antennas this year for its 5G network on the 2.1 GHz frequency, according to a video from DT. The telco said that more than half of the German population will be able to benefit from 5G.
“A technical upgrade for existing antennas in the network makes the fast 5G rollout possible. With the intelligent combination of available frequencies, Deutsche Telekom is significantly accelerating 5G expansion – especially in rural areas. In addition, a new technology is used with Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS). The radio band is no longer used only by a mobile radio standard, but can split the spectrum between LTE and 5G as needed. The network has the intelligence to decide for which standard it ideally uses the available frequencies,” the telco said in a release.
Deutsche Telekom expects to deploy 5G technology in 14 additional cities this year to reach its goal of rolling out this technology in at least 20 of the largest German cities by the end of 2020.
In a conference call with investors, the carrier’s CEO Timotheus Höttges said Deutsche Telekom aims to cover half of the country with 5G during this year.
“We will switch on 5G in 2.1GHz in at least half of Germany already this year. 2.1 GHz is excellent for 5G because this spectrum range combines speed with good propagation,” the executive said.
“We will have the top 20 cities covered with 3.6 GHz. Going forward, we will leverage other spectrum ranges, such as 700 MHz frequencies. So we have a mix of low band, mid band [and] high band, which is, compared to my competition, significantly better, and we will roll out faster than anybody else. So comparing the commitments of Vodafone with ours, we will have four times more coverage already by the end of the year with regard to 5G,” Höttges added.
Deutsche Telekom kicked off the rollout of its 5G network in a limited number of cities across Germany at the beginning of July 2019. By the end of 2020, the number of DT’s 5G sites is expected to climb to nearly 1,500.
