Telefónica Germany

The coming weeks will see the political course being set for the development of the future mobile broadband infrastructure in Germany. Depending on the framework conditions for the forthcoming 5G frequency allocation, Germany can either take a giant leap towards digitisation through investments by the three network providers – or it can miss out on an enormous opportunity.

Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica Deutschland are joining forces to accelerate the expansion of their mobile networks. The two companies have agreed to connect at least 5,000 Telefónica Deutschland mobile network sites in total to Telekom’s high-performance fibre-optic infrastructure in the long term. In turn, Deutsche Telekom can directly leverage the synergy effects from this to expand its own network. This cooperation is not just remarkable because of its size. It is also ground-breaking in terms of the future 5G communication standard and new digital applications.

Fixed Wireless Access enables rapid broadband development | Trials with 20 households will start in November 2018

At an after-work talk, CEO Markus Haas spoke to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag about spending his leisure time in the mountains and why there is currently such a heated debate about current and future mobile network coverage in Germany.

In an interview with the German newspaper "Tagesspiegel", Telefónica Deutschland CEO Markus Haas talks about the challenges of the digital infrastructure in Germany as well as the planned allocation rules for the new mobile standard 5G.

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.

Unlimited browsing at home and on the go with O₂ my All in One

Speaking with the Handelsblatt business newspaper, CEO Markus Haas stated that legislators need to focus on boosting spending to expand infrastructure in the future. He expressed his opposition to forcing network operators to sign fair pricing agreements with service providers and explained that a fourth network would not help improve coverage in Germany. This post contains excerpts of that interview. You can find the complete interview online and in the print issue of Handelsblatt from 13 August 2018.

Effective 1 January 2019, Telefónica Deutschland and MediaMarktSaturn Deutschland will extend their successful sales cooperation by another five years. In addition, both partners intend to expand their existing cooperation, in particular in the online segment. The two companies have now signed the corresponding agreement.

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”).

Telefónica Deutschland is currently pushing the nationwide LTE expansion on a massive scale. In order to enhance its customers’ network experience, the company is constructing several new LTE stations in both urban and rural areas and increasing existing capacities. In the first half of 2018, the telecommunications provider already installed more than 3,000 additional LTE stations or upgraded existing LTE sites. This corresponds to approx. 120 LTE upgrades per week – at peak times even 200 per week. Thanks to this comprehensive network expansion, even more customers can browse the web at high speed in more and more places, stream videos smoothly, share their pictures with other people within seconds and make calls in the best HD voice quality thanks to voice telephony via LTE (Voice over LTE; VoLTE).

After growth in the first half of the year, Telefónica Deutschland is on track to meet its targets for 2018. From January to June, the company increased its operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) adjusted for exceptional and regulatory effects by 6.1% to EUR 927 million. This was driven mainly by further synergies from the merger with E-Plus as well as the cost-efficient acquisition of new customers. Adjusted for regulatory effects, revenues increased by 0.3% to EUR 3.55 billion in the first half of the year. Revenues from devices and mobile services had a positive effect here. The number of mobile contract customers rose by 333,000 in the second quarter thanks to attractive new tariffs. Mobile data use grew particularly sharply in this period with an increase of 54%, with the new O₂ Free tariffs with extra-large data packages playing a crucial role.

Good news from today’s mobile summit, convened by Andreas Scheuer, Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, in Berlin: All parties concerned from the federal government, federal states, local umbrella organisations and the industry have signed an ambitious declaration to fill in the blank spots on Germany’s network supply map.

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.

In an interview with the German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung, CEO Markus Haas explains how Telefónica Deutschland has expanded the new O₂ network in the Stuttgart region as part of its network integration. He also discusses the opportunities and challenges of the future standard 5G as well as the basic conditions for the upcoming frequency allocation.

The Telefónica Group has published a new edition of its Digital Manifesto, in which the telecommunications company makes a global commitment to a “new digital deal” so that digitalisation benefits everybody in times of rapid technological, political and social change. In a guest article, Markus Haas, CEO of Telefónica Deutschland, explains why many existing laws and regulations no longer meet the challenges of the digital age, what he hopes will emerge from more intensive collaboration between business, politics and society, and how Telefónica is putting the Digital Manifesto into action in Germany.

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

CEO Álvarez-Pallete stands by the German mobile communications subsidiary.

The supervisory board of Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG today elected Laura Abasolo García de Baquedano as its new chairperson. The 45-year-old Spaniard succeeds Eva Castillo Sanz, who resigned from the position on 25 April in order to pursue new professional challenges.

The chairperson of the supervisory board, Eva Castillo Sanz, has informed the company´s management board and the supervisory board that she will resign from her position as chairperson of the supervisory board with immediate effect.