Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges outlined an eight-point program for rolling out 5G that targets coverage to 99% of Germany’s population by 2025. The company is aiming to launch commercial 5G operation will launch in 2020 when terminal devices are available in sufficient numbers. Already 22,000 of the company’s 27,000 mobile sites are already 5G-ready thanks to fiber-optic connectivity and the single RAN technology.
Speaking at the Telekom Netze-Tag event in Berlin, Höttges repeated his commitment to continue investing around 5.5 billion euros annually in the build-out of broadband networks in Germany.
He called on representatives from the political and industrial worlds to cooperate with network providers to pave the way for “the best 5G infrastructure in the world.”
“Companies, authorities, and citizens in Germany are entitled to the best-performing digital infrastructure. In urban centers and rural areas alike. Broadband for everyone instead of a digital divide remains the objective. We will only achieve this objective by working together, not by competing with one another,” said Tim Höttges at the BDI conference in Berlin. “Not possible is not an option – gigabit networks for Germany.”
Some highlights:
- 5G coverage to 99 percent of the German population by 2025.
- Targetting 90 percent 5G area coverage by 2025. This level can be achieved with 4G in 2021.
- The DT Group will invest 20 billion euros in Germany by 2021.
- All mobile base stations will be equipped to run initial 5G applications such as the NB-IoT
- DT is also speeding up the installation of new antenna sites. It currently operates 27,000 antenna sites and will be adding at least 2,000 each year. The number of antenna sites will reach 36,000 by 2021.
- DT is currently running a 5G test cluster in central Berlin.
https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/working-hard-on-the-5g-roll-out-in-germany-545412
