Press Releases Telefónica Germany for topic #network

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is now conducting research on concrete applications via a 5G campus network set up by O₂ Telefónica. For example, the scientists want to use 5G to improve the use of autonomous transport vehicles in intralogistics. Until now, such vehicles have been restricted in their range of applications due to limited data connections and response times.

Telecommunications provider O₂ Telefónica is making rapid progress in its 5G network rollout and has reached an important milestone early: since June, the telecommunications provider has been providing 50 percent of the population with its fast O₂ 5G network.

Munich-based telecommunications provider O₂ Telefónica is launching its fast 5G network in the Munich subway. From now on, all O₂ customers with the appropriate tariff and device can use the modern 5G mobile communications standard in the entire subway network of the Bavarian capital. Whether on the daily commute to work or on the way to events such as soccer matches and the Oktoberfest - thanks to 5G, O₂ customers benefit from an improved network experience on all lines from U1 to U8. They have access to higher mobile data rates and more network capacity when they use music and video streaming or other digital applications while riding the subway.

The German Federal Association for Fiber Optic Connections (BUGLAS) and telecommunications provider O₂ Telefónica have agreed on a framework contract for the accelerated expansion of the 5G infrastructure in Germany.

Be it for major events, construction measures or crises caused by severe weather: O₂ Telefónica is now on the road throughout Germany with 60 new mobile radio stations. This enables the company to quickly and flexibly provide O₂ customers with additional 4G/2G capacities as well as powerful 5G on 3.6 GHz exactly where more network is needed.

The telecommunications provider O₂ Telefónica has reached an important milestone in its nationwide 5G network expansion offensive: currently, around 10,000 5G antennas are transmitting in the O₂ network. This means that O₂ is providing 5G to more than a third of the population.

The German mobile network operators are implementing further initiatives to improve mobile coverage in rural areas. As part of their grey spots initiatives, the operators had each bilaterally agreed to share the network technology of the operator previously active there alone at several thousand locations. Customers of O₂ Telefónica and its partner brands will be provided with 4G mobile reception at up to 2,000 additional locations this year via this and other cooperation agreements. This will enable an additional several 100,000 people to use the O₂ network where they live.

O₂ Telefónica is the first German network operator connecting an Open RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) from Nokia to a mobile communications cluster in its own commercial live network. In the coming months, the artificial intelligence of the RIC will independently optimize the mobile network for customers in the Hellersdorf district of Berlin.

In an interview at the start of the year with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, CEO Markus Haas talks about digital opportunities for a new German government, ways to speed up network expansion and the benefits of 5G.

As the first German network operator, O₂ / Telefónica has activated the first mini-radio cells with innovative Open RAN technology (ORAN) in Munich. In addition to the very well developed O₂ network, this will provide all O₂ customers with even more capacity and higher bandwidths at busy locations in the future. The installation of pure 5G Open RAN mini radio cells ("5G standalone") will follow later in the year.

The year 2022 starts directly with data fireworks at O₂ / Telefónica Deutschland: In the first hour of the new year, customers sent more mobile data through the O₂ network than ever before on New Year's Eve, with around 382,000 gigabytes. This represents an increase of 35 percent compared with the prior-year period (283,000 GB data volume). Traditionally, customers send many congratulations via instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp or via social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook, especially in the first hour of the new year. With a total of 13.5 million phone calls, more calls were also made in the hour after midnight than in the previous year.

A mobile communications era is coming to an end: O₂ / Telefónica will shut down the last 3G sites in the O₂ mobile network on 30 December, sealing the end of UMTS (3G) in Germany. The freed-up frequencies at 2,100 MHz, which O₂ previously used for 3G, will be used entirely for the faster and more efficient 4G standard.

O₂ / Telefónica has reached a milestone in the implementation and control of software defined network functions. For the first time, the telecommunications provider – together with its technology partners – has implemented a vendor-agnostic SDN interface in its nationwide O₂ network. This interface is compatible with a wide range of microwave systems, enabling the company to implement changes to its microwave links uniformly across all manufacturers and in near real time. O₂ / Telefónica is already using this innovative interface for all of the approximately 30,000 microwave links in the O₂ network, which are responsible for transporting data between mobile network sites and the next network node with capacities of up to 10 Gbit/s. Microwave complements fiber-optic services to transport large amounts of data over longer distances cost-effectively and efficiently over the air.

For its 5G mobile network expansion in Germany, O₂ / Telefónica Deutschland is relying on state-of-the-art microwave radio as a supplement to the fiber optic connection of mobile stations.

Driven by the 5G network rollout and Corona-related contact restrictions, German mobile communications is producing new records in telephony and data usage: the O₂ network breaks the 2 billion gigabyte barrier in data consumption per year for the first time. O₂ customers sent more mobile data through the network than ever before in the last eleven months from January to early December 2021.

The O₂ network has achieved the best result in the history of Telefónica / O₂ in the renowned connect network test. The trade magazine again awarded the O₂ network the grade "very good" this year for the second time.

Telefónica Deutschland is expanding its wholesale partnerships with Lebara as a prominent newcomer. The international mobile provider Lebara has also been present in the German market since 2010 and is an established part of the market landscape there as a provider of mobile voice and data services for 'global citizens'. In order to further increase its growth potential, Lebara will in future realise its mobile business via Telefónica Deutschland's network infrastructure. The switch as the newest wholesale partner to the Munich-based telecommunications company is planned for next year.

In SMARTPHONE magazine's major mobile network test, the O₂ network secured the grade "very good" for the first time this year. Due to the latest expansion successes and enormous increase in network quality, the O₂ network also moves up to second place among the best German mobile network providers. The O₂ network impressed in the test with strong performance in cities.

For the first time, O₂ is using an innovative "all in one" mobile communications antenna in its 5G network that supports all frequency bands and mobile communications standards. Currently, for example, network operators have to install additional 5G antennas to existing antenna systems on rooftops and cell towers for the 5G network rollout on 3.6 GHz. The new "all-in-one" antennas significantly simplify such upgrades and conversions of mobile network sites. They also reduce the space required as well as the overall weight of the setups and cut operating costs by around 30 percent.

Telefónica Deutschland / O₂ is expanding its IoT tariff portfolio: The new O₂ Business Easy IoT prepaid tariff complements the already well-known IoT Connect tariff. O₂ Business Easy IoT provides companies with an easy-to-administer tariff that is especially designed for IoT applications with low data transmission requirements and very long usage periods.

One year after the 5G launch, Telefónica Deutschland / O₂ confirms its expansion plans for the latest mobile communications standard: the O₂ network will cover over 50 percent of the German population with 5G by the end of 2022. The company is also on track for the end of 2021 and continues to target coverage of over 30 percent. The basis for this is the high investment programme with a volume of around four billion euros until the end of 2022. In the expansion of the new mobile technology, the focus is on so-called "pure 5G" via the most powerful 3.6 GHz frequency. The 3,000th 3.6 GHz antenna just went live in the O₂ 5G network. Meanwhile, Telefónica Deutschland / O₂ is installing around 180 of these 5G antennas in the network every week, tendency further increasing. The company is expanding 5G twice as fast overall compared to 4G and is fully on track to supply all of Germany with 5G by the end of 2025.

Today, Telefónica Tech and Alias Robotics, a company specialising in cyber security for robots, have inaugurated the world's first laboratory dedicated exclusively to innovation in cyber security for robots, at the Wayra Innovation Hub in Munich.

O₂ has become the first German mobile network operator to successfully make a voice call purely over its 5G Live network. The technological innovation Voice over New Radio (VoNR) makes voice telephony in the 5G network possible in the first place. To date, voice calls in all German mobile networks still run via predecessor technologies.

Telefónica and NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced today that they have entered an agreement to conduct Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) pre-commercial trials in Telefonica’s four core global markets: Spain, Germany, the UK and Brazil.

World premiere in Munich: On the occasion of the IAA Mobility, Telefónica Deutschland/O₂ demonstrates the possibilities that 5G technology has to offer for the future of mobility as part of the "O₂ 5G Race Days". Via the public O₂ 5G network, anyone of interest will be able to control racing cars in real time over a racetrack – anywhere across the world and from wherever 5G is available. A 60 meter race track, 6 model cars, 6 Samsung smartphones and a powerful 5G network - for their demonstration, O₂ has set up the race track in the 5G Tech Lab of its Innovation Hub Wayra in the heart of Munich. There, model racers of the startup VROMBR will be controlled via the 5G network for the first time worldwide. Due to its superior technical properties - particularly the exceptionally short response times of currently already 10 to 20 milliseconds - the 5G mobile communications standard makes it possible for control commands to be transmitted from smartphone to automobile in real time.