O2 Telefonica has added 5G technology to around 3,000 locations since the beginning of the year
German carrier O2 Telefonica, owned by Spanish telecom company Telefonica, announced that its 5G network now reaches 95% of Germany’s population.
O2 Telefonica implemented a total of approximately 7,000 expansion measures in 2023. Since the beginning of the year, O2 Telefonica has announced that it has brought online more than 750 additional mobile locations. The O2 network currently operates at approximately 28,000 locations nationwide.
Markus Haas, CEO of O2 Telefónica, said: “We want to offer a first-class network to our 43 million customers across Germany. To achieve this objective, we have implemented a comprehensive network expansion program this year. We have closed coverage gaps, brought 5G to additional regions and enabled the latest network technology for the digitalization of Germany with 5G Plus.”
O2 Telefonica has added 5G technology to around 3,000 locations since the beginning of the year.
In October, O2 Telefonica announced the launch of its 5G Standalone (SA) network in the country under the 5G Plus brand. Until this launch, the German telecommunications company had offered its 5G services through the NonStandalone (NSA) 5G architecture, partially through its LTE/4G core network.
The telco said the new network will give customers access to Voice-over-New-Radio (VoNR) technology, allowing them to make calls with even better voice quality over the 5G network.
O2 Telefonica said it is already using 5G SA technology in its 5G campus networks for businesses and public institutions since 2020. The company said this new launch will make it accessible to more companies in various sectors such as industrial, healthcare and public sector. Improved connectivity.
The carrier’s 5G Plus uses frequencies in the 700 MHz, 1.8 GHz, and 3.6 GHz bands.
The company said it expects its 5G SA service to be fully covered in Germany by the end of 2025.
Earlier this year, O2 Telefonica and Ericsson completed a proof of concept (PoC) aimed at paving the way for the development of 5G cloud RAN technology in Europe.
The joint PoC deployment took place at O2 Telefonica’s Wayra innovation hub in Munich, where the partners showcased the capabilities of Ericsson’s first European 5G cloud RAN deployment. According to the vendor, the PoC leverages a central control unit (CU) and uses mmWave frequencies to achieve end-to-end speeds of over 4Gbps.
Ericsson and O2 Telefonica said the partnership will “validate the feasibility” of Cloud RAN for fixed wireless access (FWA) use cases, as well as enterprise and industry-specific use cases.
According to the vendor, O2 Telefonica’s implementation of Ericsson’s cloud-native software solution for 5G cloud RAN will enable operators to experience significant gains in flexibility, service delivery, and improved network operations.
