Press Releases Telefónica Germany

Digitization in the healthcare sector is necessary. The corona pandemic has made this visible in many places. To drive digitization forward in its own hospital, Helios Park-Klinikum Leipzig has been operating the first private 5G standalone campus network in a hospital in Germany since December 2021. The 5G standalone campus network designed and built by O₂ Telefónica acts as a digitalization turbo. With the deployment of the government-funded 5G campus network, the hospital operator expects a boost in efficiency and innovation.

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 taking the management of business customer solutions to the cloud: the telecommunications provider is launching a new cloud-based IT platform for the future-proof management and billing of its digital office and telecommunications solutions in the business customer segment (B2B). For this, the company relies on state-of-the-art software from MATRIXX, a leading provider of 5G converged charging solutions, running on the Google Cloud. Business customers benefit from near real-time billing processes and an optimized billing overview.

O₂ Telefónica wants to create more transparency about its CO₂ emissions along the supply chain, meaning in Scope 3. To this end, the company will use The Climate Choice software platform and collect climate-focused data from around 1,000 suppliers. The top 40 suppliers will also be invited to carry out a software-driven climate rating in order to uncover potentials for decarbonisation and to identify tailor-made fields of action.

Telefónica Deutschland closed 2021 as a record year. The company confirmed its strong momentum and again significantly improved operationally and financially compared to the previous year. In terms of revenue and customer development, Telefónica Deutschland achieved new records. Revenue increased by 3.1% to EUR 7.765 billion and was driven by a 3.5% increase in mobile service revenue to EUR 5.492 billion.

At today’s meeting, the Supervisory Board of Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG approved the appointment of Markus Haas as the company’s CEO for a further three-year term until 31 December 2025. His current contract is valid until 31 December 2022. Markus Haas has been CEO of Telefónica Deutschland since January 2017 and leads the seven-member Management Board.

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.

O₂ / Telefónica Germany continues to improve in the relevant ESG ratings by Sustainalytics and EcoVadis. The company performs particularly well in the environmental and ethical categories, confirming its pioneering role in sustainability management in the telecommunications industry.

With immediate effect, O₂ customers as well as interested new customers in numerous regions of Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony can book faster fixed network connections. To this end, O₂ / Telefónica Deutschland has added another strong regional partner to its already leading internet at home availability.

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.

From December 1, 2021, O₂ is abolishing the surcharge for rates without a term for all O₂ Free and O₂ Free Unlimited mobile rates. Such an offer already exists for fixed-network rates. In addition, O₂ is reducing the regular cancellation period from three months to just one. And another good reason for a carefree contract conclusion with O₂ in addition to the acknowledged first-class price-performance ratio: Also from December, existing fixed-term contracts will be automatically extended only in monthly intervals after the end of the regular contract term.

In cooperation with O₂, Sky Sport will also present the top match in the german Liqui Moly Handball premier league between the SG Flensburg-Handewitt and Füchse Berlin on 10 November via O₂ high-end 5G network. Thanks to flexible professional and Samsung smartphone cameras, the match will be followed up close on O₂ super-fast 5G network and broadcast live on the Internet, among other things. In addition to the classic TV broadcast, the match will be available to all fans via stream on skysport.de and the Sky Sport YouTube channel.

Consumer mobile phone labelling scheme launched in 24 European countries by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, Telia Company and Vodafone now set to expand globally | Fairphone, Realme and vivo join Eco Rating, now 15 manufacturers in total | More than 150 mobile phone models now assessed by Eco Rating methodology

Telefónica / O₂ again delivered strong operational and financial momentum in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 driven by strong demand for the core O₂ brand and a good partner business. The number of contract mobile customers (excluding M2M) increased by 415,000, while revenue grew by more than 5 percent and adjusted operating income OIBDA by 3.0 percent.

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 will present for the first time at ITS World Congress Hamburg (October 11-15) a mobile edge computing networking solution that enables digital mobility applications via real-time communication in the 5G network. The company will also showcase a 5G campus network, cyber security for robots and a fleet management system at its booth (B5142).