Telekom Deutschland, O2’s joint effort to improve rural 4G finally goes live
In January 2021, Telefónica Deutschland reached agreements with Deutsche Telekom (DT) and Vodafone Deutschland to share their ‘active’ networks in hundreds of so-called ‘grey spots’ – areas which only have 4G coverage provided by one operator.
This agreement differed from the previous one, reached in autumn 2019, when the three joined forces to develop areas with no coverage at all, which are known as white spots. Also unlike previous agreements, this will include sharing active radio elements, not just the passive tower infrastructure.
Vodafond DT fast out of the blocks
While Vodafone and Telekom have brought additional coverage to some 2,600 grey areas in Germany since the 2021 agreement, with 400 more to go, Telefonica Deutschland (O2)’s progress with both partners seems to be considerably slower.
In a statement, Vodafone said its customers can use Telefonica’s network via Vodafone’s new Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) technology. This means that no additional antennas or radio technology have to be installed on the mobile phone masts. Telefonica and Vodafone together plan to close more than 2,000 grey spots.
Telekom Deutschland and Telefonica Deutschland (O2) have just announced each now has access to 200 grey sites and the new arrival at each of those sites has started live operations.
By the end of the year, the two will give each other access to up to 700 locations and should improve mobile phone coverage for up to 100,000 people throughout Germany.
The cooperation means that the newcomer to each site does not need to install separate radio technology or more antennas at the mast, also avoiding additional construction and operations resources and cost.
Importance of 800MHz frequency
At the sites, the operators offer all customers 4G access on the 800MHz frequency band.
Srini Gopalan, who is responsible for the German business at Deutsche Telekom, commented, “Telekom will not digitize Germany alone. We understand digitization as a team sport, it works best together. With Telefónica O2, we are making an important contribution to providing even more people and companies in predominantly rural areas with uninterrupted mobile communications.
O2 Telefónica CEO Markus Haas, noted, “German consumers and the economy need rapid progress in mobile coverage. The cooperative shared use of the locations of the three nationwide active network operators is an important step. The frequency spectrum used at 800 MHz underlines how important it is for the active network operators and the coverage of rural regions to extend the usage rights of this frequency band.”