08.12.2020
Coverage requirement:Telefónica / O2 supplies around 7 million additional people with 4G
Telefónica Deutschland / O2 has increased 4G coverage in Germany by 14 percentage points within one year.
In 2020, Telefónica Germany / O2 will be vigorously expanding the 4G network as part of the largest network offensive in the company's history. Now the company is reporting an important success: 98 percent of households in Germany are now covered by 4G, thus fulfilling the nationwide requirement of the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA). Despite the restrictions brought about by the Corona pandemic, Telefónica Germany / O2 has increased 4G coverage in Germany by 14 percentage points within one year. To achieve this, the company has installed around 10,000 4G elements for area effectiveness and capacity in 2020 alone, bringing fast Internet increasingly to rural areas. Nationwide, the company now provides around 7 million additional people with 4G.
Markus Haas: We are now on a par with the competition with our O2 network
"We are now on a par with the competition with our O2 network and have reduced the gap so that there are hardly any differences between the networks. This is also confirmed by the major network tests of recent weeks. In particular, the first "very good" for our O2 network in the toughest industry test conducted by the trade magazine connect shows: The hard work has paid off. This rating is a milestone in our company's history. And we achieved it far earlier than originally planned," said Markus Haas, CEO of Telefónica Germany / O2.
Federal states on the home stretch
Telefónica / O2 has made rapid progress in catching up.
In the federal states, Telefónica Germany / O2 is also well on its way to meeting the requirements of the regulator. The company has been providing 100 percent coverage in the city states since the beginning of the year, coverage in the most densely populated federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia is more than 99 percent, and the 97 percent required by the federal network agency has been achieved in most of the federal states. Overall, the company has made rapid progress in catching up - despite the fact that the Corona pandemic disrupted parts of the supply chain and caused service providers to be out of action due to quarantine. In some federal states, O2 even significantly exceeded the nationwide increase. In Hesse, for example, the company increased its 4G coverage by 20 percentage points in 2020. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the figure will be around 30 percentage points.
5G nationwide by 2025
But the company is not resting on its laurels. It is continuing to drive forward its network expansion on a massive scale and is investing a total of around four billion euros by 2022. With the investments, O2 wants to improve the 4G network even further and expand the 5G network at the same time. With the launch of the 5G network in October 2020, the company has opened the door to a new dimension of digitization. By the end of 2021, O2 wants to cover around 30 percent of the population with 5G and have a nationwide network by 2025.