Vodafone currently operates more than 26,700 mobile radio stations in Germany.
Vodafone Germany announced in a release that it has deployed 4,100 5G standalone (SA) stations with approximately 12,000 5G SA antennas across the country.
Vodafone currently operates more than 26,700 mobile radio stations in Germany, which are being progressively equipped with 5G technology.
Vodafone also announced that a total of 1,133 construction projects were completed across the country in June 2023 alone. Vodafone has eliminated 80 LTE dead spots and increased broadband capacity at more than 600 locations by building new mobile infrastructure. Similarly, Vodafone operated His 5G technology for the first time in around 450 mobile radio stations and upgraded these locations to His 5G stations.
Vodafone recently enabled 5G SA technology in an additional 58 locations across Germany.
Earlier this year, Vodafone Germany announced that it expected to commission 2,700 new 5G sites with a total of 8,000 antennas in the first half of 2023.
Last year, 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 has already reached 80% of Germany’s population. Vodafone has previously stated that 5G SA technology will be covered nationwide by 2025.
Last year, Vodafone Germany launched its 5G Standalone (SA) network in partnership with Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and Oppo. For 5G expansion, Vodafone currently relies on frequencies in the 3.6 GHz, 1.8 GHz and 700 MHz bands in metropolitan, residential, suburban 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.
Vodafone Germany had previously successfully completed field tests using Open RAN (O-RAN) technology in Plauen, Saxony.
The German carrier previously announced that it would carry out a comprehensive pilot project for an open 5G radio access network in several locations in 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 Vodafone’s 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.
