29.07.2019
Positive half-year results for Telefónica Deutschland's LTE expansion:O2 network with improved LTE coverage in thousands of municipalities
Faster internet for more cities
More LTE, higher speeds and again an even better nationwide network coverage - Telefónica Deutschland draws a very positive half-year result for its LTE expansion in the o2 network. In the course of this year alone, the company has put 4,400 new LTE transmitters into operation throughout Germany. This corresponds to about one additional LTE transmitter per hour, which is new in the o2 network. With a total of around 10,000 planned new LTE transmitters this year, Telefónica Deutschland is implementing the largest LTE expansion program in the company's history.
"With our LTE expansion offensive, we are improving mobile network coverage throughout Germany. This benefits our customers, who directly gain a continuously better network quality," says Cayetano Carbajo Martín, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Telefónica Deutschland. "LTE is and will remain a central technology for digitization in Germany. The performance limit for current and future everyday applications is far from being reached. In the interests of our customers, we are therefore working with full speed to bring fast Internet access also to rural areas."
Improved LTE coverage in cities, rural areas and along transport routes
Cayetano Carbajo Martín
In large and small cities, Telefónica Deutschland has further expanded its own LTE network in recent months and upgraded existing LTE sites with additional LTE capacities. However, the focus of the LTE expansion is primarily on rural regions that have not yet been supplied with LTE. Over the past six months, the company has improved LTE coverage in several thousand municipalities in all federal states - from North Frisia to Oberallgäu and from the Eifel to Oberlausitz. The expansion of area coverage will be further intensified in the coming months in order to offer customers a high-performance LTE network for mobile data use wherever possible.
At the same time, Telefónica Deutschland is also systematically improving LTE coverage along important transport infrastructures such as motorways, federal highways and railway lines. Most recently, the company built new LTE stations on the A1 near Mechernich, the A5 near Efringen-Kirchen and March, on the A31 near Velen, the B45 near Rodgau and along the ICE line near Neuenstein (Kalter-Sand-Tunnel) for a better network experience for its customers.
Massive progress since start of LTE expansion offensive 2018
photo: gettyimages
Telefónica Deutschland launched its LTE expansion offensive at the beginning of the second half of 2018 - parallel to the previous network integration at the time. In total, the company put more than 8,000 new LTE transmitters into operation in an extraordinary effort over the past twelve months. The efforts are paying off: With these measures, Telefónica Deutschland supplied one sixth of the area of the entire Federal Republic of Germany with fast LTE in the o2 network for the first time. The progress of the LTE expansion is also reflected in the mobile data usage of o2 customers. Average data rates for o2 customers with LTE Max contracts have increased by 50 percent since then - from an average of 27.0 Mbit/s (Q2 2018) to 39.2 Mbit/s (Q2 2019). Thus, all digital applications can be used without restriction at any time. Already with average download speeds of 5 Mbit/s e.g. YouTube videos can be watched seamlessly.
The success of the LTE expansion measures is also reflected in current network test results. In a crowdsourcing report by network test specialist Tutela, the o2 network achieved the best network quality results in four of the five German cities tested - Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg and Munich. In the test, the number of cases in which customers had an excellent network (3G and 4G) for demanding applications such as HD video telephony via Skype or video streaming (720p) and a good network for basic daily applications such as WhatsApp, e-mail or web browsing was determined.
In the coming weeks and months, Telefónica Germany will continue to step up the pace of its LTE expansion in order to offer its customers a continuously improved network experience and achieve its goal of becoming "Mobile Customer and Digital Champion".
#OrtdesTages series on Twitter
Telefónica Deutschland will once again accompany the expansion of LTE in rural areas via its own Twitter account from 1 to 31 August. For this purpose, the company is presenting a new LTE-supplied location every working day as part of the #OrtdesTages series, thus following on from the last series in May 2019.
Among others, Telefónica Deutschland added LTE to existing GSM/UMTS stations in the following districts and cities in June 2019, thereby improving the coverage of LTE:
Amberg-Sulzbach, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Ansbach, Aschaffenburg, Augsburg, Bayreuth, Berlin, Bielefeld, Bonn, Braunschweig, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Calw, Cham, Düsseldorf, Dachau, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Deggendorf, Dessau-Roßlau, Diepholz, Dingolfing-Landau, Donau-Ries, Duisburg, Eichstätt, Emsland, Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, Enzkreis, Erfurt, Erlangen-Höchstadt, Essen, Fürstenfeldbruck, Frankfurt am Main, Freising, Freyung-Grafenau, Gelsenkirchen, Gifhorn, Göppingen, Grafschaft Bentheim, Hamburg, Hameln-Pyrmont, Hamm, Harburg, Heilbronn, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Hochsauerlandkreis, Hochtaunuskreis, Hof, Hohenlohekreis, Ingolstadt, Jerichower Land, Karlsruhe, Köln, Konstanz, Krefeld, Kreis Borken, Kreis Düren, Kreis Euskirchen, Kreis Herford, Kreis Lippe, Kreis Mettmann, Kreis Minden-Lübbecke, Kreis Nordfriesland, Kreis Recklinghausen, Kreis Rendsburg-Eckernförde, Kreis Siegen-Wittgenstein, Kreis Soest, Kreis Stormarn, Kreis Unna, Kreis Viersen, Kreis Wesel, Kulmbach, Lüchow-Dannenberg, Lahn-Dill-Kreis, Landsberg am Lech, Landshut, Leipzig, Lörrach, Ludwigsburg, Ludwigslust-Parchim, Mülheim an der Ruhr, München, Münster, Magdeburg, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, Mainz, Mainz-Bingen, Mannheim, Märkischer Kreis, Merzig-Wadern, Miltenberg, Nürnberg, Nürnberger Land, Neustadt an der Waldnaab, Nienburg/Weser, Nordwestmecklenburg, Northeim, Oberallgäu, Oberhausen, Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Offenbach, Offenbach am Main, Ortenaukreis, Osnabrück, Ostalbkreis, Passau, Peine, Ravensburg, Regen, Region Hannover, Regionalverband Saarbrücken, Rems-Murr-Kreis, Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, Rhein-Kreis Neuss, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, Rosenheim, Rotenburg (Wümme), Rottweil, Saalekreis, Schaumburg, Schwandorf, Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis, Sigmaringen, Solingen, Sömmerda, Städteregion Aachen, Stade, Stendal, Tübingen, Tirschenreuth, Traunstein, Trier-Saarburg, Tuttlingen, Unterallgäu, Vechta, Verden, Vorpommern-Greifswald, Würzburg, Weilheim-Schongau, Weimarer Land, Wolfsburg, Worms, Wuppertal, Zollernalbkreis