Vodafone said its 5G standalone network (SA) currently serves 45% of Germany’s population.
Vodafone Germany’s 5G network now reaches 90% of the country’s population, the carrier said in a release.
Meanwhile, the carrier’s 5G standalone network (SA) serves 45% of Germany’s population, the carrier added. Vodafone has previously stated that 5G SA technology will be covered nationwide by 2025.
Vodafone currently operates more than 26,000 mobile radio stations in Germany, including around 15,000 5G stations.
Vodafone also highlighted that more than 1,000 construction projects were completed across the country in September 2023 alone. A total of 560 construction projects expanded the 5G network and increased 5G capacity and speed.
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.
In 2022, Vodafone engineers commissioned 5,450 5G sites with more than 16,000 antennas.
Vodafone Germany launched its 5G standalone network last year 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.
The company 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.
