Vodafone said its 5G network already serves 65 million people nationwide.
Vodafone Germany aims to activate 2,700 new 5G sites with a total of 8,000 antennas by the first half of 2023, the carrier said in a release.
During 2022, Vodafone engineers commissioned 5,450 5G sites with more than 16,000 antennas. According to the company, Vodafone is already equipped with a total of 36,000 5G antennas.
The company said its 5G network already serves 65 million people across Germany, almost 80% of the country’s population.
The company previously said its 5G standalone network is now available to around 20 million people across Germany. Vodafone has previously said that 5G SA technology will be covered nationwide by 2025. The German telecommunications company had already deployed more than 3,000 base stations for the provision of 5G SA services.
Last year, Vodafone Germany launched its 5G Standalone (SA) network in partnership with Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and Oppo.
In its 5G expansion, Vodafone is leveraging frequencies in the 3.6 GHz, 1.8 GHz and 700 MHz bands in metropolitan areas, residential and suburban areas, and rural areas across Germany.
Vodafone initially launched its 5G network in Germany in 2019 using the 3.5GHz spectrum it acquired from Telefonica in 2018.
The company also said it will continue to expand its LTE infrastructure across the country. Vodafone said that nationally, it currently provides LTE to around 98% of households.
“In 2023, Vodafone plans to bring the LTE mobile communications standard to more people and more locations. Approximately 1,900 expansion measures are pending at existing stations,” Vodafone said.
“Together with Altice, Vodafone plans to launch Germany’s largest fiber-optic partnership in spring 2023, subject to antitrust approval. The goal is to provide new fiber-optic connections to up to 7 million households over the next six years. ” Vodafone added.
Vodafone Germany recently completed a successful field test using Open RAN (O-RAN) technology in Plauen, Saxony.
The German carrier recently announced that it will implement a comprehensive pilot project for an open 5G radio access network in multiple locations across Germany. The first two stations of the carrier’s O-RAN technology are located in rural Bavaria. The pilot is expected to begin in early 2023 and will mark the beginning of the wider implementation of O-RAN technology across Vodafone’s European mobile network.
The pilot project will use O-RAN hardware and software that Vodafone successfully tested in the UK earlier this year. Samsung is currently contributing mobile technology and software to these O-RAN trials.
