Press Releases Telefónica Germany for topic #network

In the mobile radio frequency auction that has come to an end, Telefónica Deutschland has secured 90 MHz nationwide spectrum for the high-performance mobile radio standard 5G with a running time up to 2040.

Telefónica Deutschland continues to go full speed ahead with the expansion of its O₂ LTE network: In April 2019 alone, the telecommunications provider built more than 800 new LTE stations or upgraded the capacity of existing LTE locations throughout Germany.

The telecommunications providers Telefónica Deutschland and Vodafone have agreed that Telefónica Deutschland will have access to Vodafone's and Unitymedia’s cable network in Germany. With the access to the cable network, Telefónica Deutschland is significantly expanding and improving its nationwide fixed-network offering with high-speed internet, including its capability to provide high quality over-the-top internet-based TV services.

Telefónica Deutschland once again stepped up the pace of its LTE expansion across its O₂ network in the first quarter of 2019. The new LTE stations that the company built together with the LTE upgrades to existing locations that it performed numbered over 2,200 in the first three months overall.

Telefónica Deutschland further intensified its network expansion measures in the first few months of 2019. In February 2019 alone, the company performed more than 900 LTE upgrades nationwide. With more than 220 LTE upgrades a week in February, Telefónica Deutschland nearly doubled the rate of its LTE expansion in comparison to the previous year. The network quality was noticeably improved further in many regions across Germany. After 6,700 very extensive LTE upgrades in 2018, the company is pursuing a unique mission this year: Around 10,000 LTE upgrades will advance LTE network coverage in the country toward full coverage and add to its coverage in cities.

The auction of the 5G frequencies started on 19 March at the premises of the Federal Network Agency in Mainz. In the course of the auction 420 MHz from the ranges 2 GHz and 3.6 GHz will be auctioned in 41 blocks.

Telefónica Deutschland and Samsung Electronics have successfully piloted fixed wireless access (FWA) with 5G in Hamburg. The pilot of the 5G gigabit technology took place from December 2018 to February 2019 in the district of Hamm in Hamburg. A number of private households participated in the free pilot.

Telefónica Deutschland is seeking legal clarity on the auction design for the upcoming 5G mobile communications standard with an urgent court application for the forthcoming auction procedure. This has no influence on the timetable for the network expansion of the technology.

Telefónica Deutschland massively expanded its LTE network in all German states in 2018. In total, the company expanded the O₂ network with more than 6,700 additional LTE stations throughout Germany. Telefónica Deutschland has thus enabled millions of people, even in rural areas, to use mobile high-speed Internet and modern digital applications and to make calls with top sound quality thanks to Voice over LTE (VoLTE).

Telefónica Deutschland is setting the stage for the company’s participation in the planned frequency auction for the next generation of mobile service (5G). As a first step, the complete documents were submitted to the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) in a timely manner. Telefónica Deutschland sees major business opportunities in 5G, particularly in the context of Industry 4.0.

Nokia and Telefónica Germany have completed building their joint “Early 5G Innovation Cluster” in Berlin. The “Early 5G Innovation Cluster” incorporates five sites in Telefónica’s cellular network in Berlin-Friedrichshain. These sites, equipped with Nokia 5G Airscale radio and Wavence Microwave technology, will be used in the next months primarily to test and measure the performance and coverage of first 5G services in a dense urban area.

A clear “good” rating for the O₂ network, leaping up almost an entire point in comparison to the previous year (from 3.1 to 2.2): The results of the current, Germany-wide CHIP network test clearly show that Telefónica Deutschland has made huge improvements to network quality for its customers thanks to its extensive network measures. The specialist magazine CHIP even referred to it as a “quantum leap”. The O₂ network was also rated as good to very good in the sub-categories Internet, voice and LTE network as well as in multiple major cities. At the same time, Telefónica Deutschland announced more improvements to network quality in the year to come.

Telefónica Deutschland is having more than 1,500 mobile base stations connected to GasLINE’s high-performance network infrastructure in order to prepare it for the future technology 5G and for new digital applications. The two companies have already been cooperating successfully for several years on fibre-optic connections for mobile base stations and in the backbone field, and they have now signed a contract for another extensive expansion programme.

Telefónica Deutschland is launching a partnership with vitroconnect GmbH. As a first step, Telefónica Deutschland will use the network-operator-independent platform of vitroconnect GmbH to gain access to EWE TEL GmbH’s access network. EWE TEL GmbH has a particularly strong presence in Lower Saxony, with high-performance broadband connections. With this partnership, Telefónica Deutschland is continuing to expand its position as a national fixed network provider in Germany and will be able to offer potential new customers fast VDSL connections of up to 100 Mbit/s in even more areas. It will also give many existing o2 DSL customers the option to switch to faster VDSL tariffs. The first customers have already been connected successfully.

We are currently having a lively debate, and rightly so, about the 5G frequency awards and the expansion of wireless networks in Germany. The demands for equal treatment of urban and rural areas are also legitimate. However, what matters is that we look very closely at needs, possibilities, and goals. Only if we carefully consider the frequency awards and infrastructure expansion, and provide a framework that promotes investment, can Germany be a global leader in 5G. Telefónica Deutschland is making a specific proposal for this.

Telefónica Deutschland has successfully implemented the voice standard Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) within its national LTE network. Technically speaking, the new voice standard is a further development of AMR-WB (Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband): O₂ customers in the LTE network can now make calls in excellent Full HD voice quality. With EVS, telephone calls are transmitted much more clearly and naturally than before – EVS transmits the audible frequency range at up to 16,000 Hertz instead of up to 7,000 Hertz as used to be the case. As a result, EVS means conversations are perceived as clearer, more understandable and therefore more natural. Another advantage is that the new codec allows background noise to be suppressed better than before. EVS significantly improves the sound image compared to previous mobile calls.

No other network operator is better than O₂ when it comes to providing customers in Munich with LTE - this is the result of a recent network test for mobile communications coverage in the Bavarian state capital by specialist magazine connect. Overall, the new O₂ network in Munich achieved a “good” rating (830 points), having significantly improved in terms of network quality compared to the last nationwide network test in 2017 (result “sufficient”).

On its way to the mobile communications network of the future, Telefónica Deutschland is cooperating with NGN FIBER NETWORK KG (NGN) from Lower Franconia in order to have parts of its mobile communications locations connected to high-speed fibre-optic lines. The goal of the network operator is to further improve the performance of its own LTE network, while laying the foundation for a nationwide 5G network that offers significantly better data rates, higher capacities and extremely low latency times.

The network integration is a major project unparalleled in Europe and is currently in full swing across Germany, making great progress in all regions.

In addition to existing projects such as TechCity and "5G Connected Mobility", Telefónica Germany has been supporting another 5G project since the beginning of the year. At the transmitter site in Wendelstein near Rosenheim, a test field for 5G broadcasting in the frequency range around 700 MHz is currently being built.

Telefónica Deutschland will be the first network operator in Germany to provide voice calls via LTE and WiFi for all customers of its home brands and partner brands. This includes both postpaid and prepaid customers. When making calls with these technologies, so-called “Voice over LTE (VoLTE)” and “Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi),” customers benefit from improved voice quality and expanded network coverage via LTE and WiFi at no additional cost. Telefónica Deutschland will gradually implement the services across the individual brands and customer groups, and plans to have completed the process by the end of March 2018.

Telefónica Deutschland has reached an important milestone in the ongoing merger of the O₂ and E-Plus networks. The company has successfully completed the conversion of its GSM, UMTS and LTE networks to a uniform network identification.

The overburdening of city transport systems is becoming an increasing challenge. But before cities can take concrete action, they need to gather precise traffic data. This is often very time consuming and expensive. A study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO in cooperation with Telefónica NEXT and the data analysis specialist Teralytics found that mobile network data can make a positive contribution to transport planning.

Adjusted operating income (OIBDA)(1) rose to EUR 1.83 billion in 2016, an increase of 3.8% | As expected, mobile service revenues (MSR) adjusted for regulatory effects were down slightly by 1.1% year on year and by 1.7% in reported terms | Market leadership by mobile customers maintained in 2016: Increase of 1.28 million(2) to record number of postpaid customers

Network integration progress and LTE expansion contribute to high popularity among customers: about 426,000 additional postpaid customers in the third quarter of 2016 | Continued double-digit revenue growth from data business | Mobile service revenues down slightly, as expected | Adjusted OIBDA benefits from synergies and increases 3.3% in first nine months | Full-year outlook reiterated | CEO Thorsten Dirks: “Our strong package of product, network and price continues to be the most popular in Germany. Telefónica Deutschland’s digital transformation will continue to gain momentum in 2017”