"Good" rating in all German network tests for the first time:O₂ network achieves breakthrough in network quality

This never happened before: In all three major German network tests, the O₂ network has achieved the grade "good". In the tests of the specialist magazines connect, CHIP and COMPUTER BILD, the network made the biggest leap forward across all providers in terms of network quality. This means that for millions of customers and consumers, the quality of their network has noticeably improved this year. This is paying off - for private customers, business customers and partners of Telefónica Deutschland. For an even stronger O₂ network, the company is implementing an extensive network expansion program with thousands of additional LTE transmitters as well as targeted optimization measures. This performance is prominently reflected in this year's network tests and helps the O₂ network to achieve a breakthrough in network quality, which is rated "good" across all tests. "The network tests show: We are making an ever stronger and better network available to our customers. With immediate effect, there are three more good reasons to rely on our O₂ network," says Markus Haas, CEO of Telefónica Deutschland. "Our quality improvements are the result of an intelligent network strategy, massive expansion investments and the outstanding work of our network experts. We are now consistently continuing this positive trend."

The O₂ network takes off in the current network test of trade magazine connect and makes the clearest leap forward again this year. With an improvement of +78 points, the network confidently took the next hurdle and secured a "good" rating (758 points). The expansion progress and quality improvements in the past two years were enormous and directly benefit O₂ customers in the daily use of their digital applications. According to the connect network test, customers generally benefit from more stable telephone calls, better voice qualityand faster call set-up when it comes to voice connections. Overall, the O₂ network offers the best voice coverage in urban and rural areas (crowdsourcing). The network is also improving in terms of data usage and enables customers to better browse the web and stream YouTube more frequently. Telefónica Deutschland increased the average speeds for O₂ customers from 30.4 Mbit/s last year to 40.5 Mbit/s this year. According to crowdsourcing results, the O₂ network in cities even offers the best download data rates (52.8 Mbit/s) and generally the best upload rates.

In the network tests of the magazines CHIP and COMPUTER BILD, too, the O₂ network also put a premium on quality: Compared to the previous year's rating, the network made the greatest quality progress of all network operators in the CHIP network test with +5.59 percent. The network performed particularly well in cities. In the COMPUTER BILD network test, O₂ was the only provider to improve its rating and secured a "good" rating for the first time since the test was launched. The network convinced with the best nationwide coverage for telephony, with the best LTE coverage within buildings and with the best LTE coverage in numerous major cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Bremen, Essen, Nuremberg and Oberhausen.

"The basis for our future network expansion is optimal," says Mallik Rao, the new Chief Technology & Information Officer of Telefónica Deutschland. "We have exactly the motivation and the tailwind to further improve our O₂ network now and to attack self-confidently. We have a clear goal: We want to turn our good network into a great network. We will do everything we can to achieve this, because that's what our customers expect and deserve, and that's how we give them digital freedom." Under the leadership of CTIO Mallik Rao, Telefónica Deutschland’s network organization will continue its extensive network expansion program in the coming months. The company will continue to massively upgrade network capacities in cities, as the majority of customers live and work here. Telefónica will also continue to focus on network expansion in rural areas and along important traffic routes in order to improve mobile communications coverage in rural areas. The company will announce its concrete network expansion plans at its Strategy Day on 11 December 2019. By continuously improving its network, the company is taking an important step towards becoming the preferred partner for customers in the German mobile communications market.