There is now at least an approximate time frame for the start of the new fourth mobile network in Germany: The operator 1&1 announced that the infrastructure will be put into operation nationwide in the summer of next year.
Then sufficient antennas should be installed in all federal states to provide coverage with which such a step can be taken. However, CEO Ralph Dommermuth, who announced the launch to the DPA news agency, did not say exactly how dense the new network should be.
However, it should be clear that 1&1 customers will hardly be offered coverage similar to that offered by the established providers Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica in the foreseeable future. Therefore, users can rely on a roaming agreement here, at least for a transitional period: If you don’t find a 5G antenna from 1&1 nearby, you will automatically be logged into Telefonica’s 4G network.
You want to beat deadlines
However, Dommermuth explained that the aim was to meet the Federal Network Agency’s expansion requirements well before the respective deadline. The authority obliges 1&1 to reach at least a quarter of German households with its own infrastructure by the end of 2023, and by the end of 2025 it must be at least 50 percent.
That shouldn’t be too much of a problem though. The other network operators have already demonstrated that relatively high values can be reached very quickly if urban areas are covered to a large extent. It becomes more difficult when it comes to collecting the last 20 percent of households in the sparsely populated rural areas. Here you will probably be confronted with a situation similar to that known to users from the earlier days of the E-Plus network.