16 million users can get in: Telekom presses on the 5G tube

Telekom is converting thousands of transmission towers in Germany to 5G. Theoretically, 16 million people could now use the new mobile phone standard, and by mid-July it should even be 40 million. The expansion is now also beginning in the country and Huawei remains involved.

The 5G expansion in Germany is progressing despite the Corona crisis. At least at Telekom, it seems to be going well. In her own words, she ignited the "5G Boost" and upgraded many existing radio masts. In total, around 16 million people across Germany should now be able to use 5G with more than 12,000 broadcasting stations. Not only will large metropolitan areas benefit from the new mobile communications standard, as before, network expansion is also progressing in rural areas.

40,000 5G antennas by the end of the year

All in all, Telekom is now supplying 1000 cities and municipalities with 5G in whole or in part. How large the network coverage is now can be seen on a Telekom card. And the patchwork should grow rapidly. The company would like to make 40 million Germans 5G available by mid-July, and 40,000 LTE antennas should be upgraded by the end of the year.

According to Telekom, the rapid expansion makes, among other things, the variable use of mobile radio frequencies possible. It uses 15 megahertz (MHz) in the 2.1 gigahertz band for LTE and 5G. Of these, 5 MHz come from the previous 3G spectrum and are being rededicated. In addition, Telekom prematurely bought 10 MHz of the current 3G spectrum from another provider, which is also used for LTE and 5G.

LTE users also benefit

When upgrading the radio masts, Telekom relies on Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS). The technology enables both mobile radio standards to be used in parallel in one frequency band, with the available spectrum being distributed as needed between LTE and 5G users. LTE users also benefited from 5G expansion, according to Telekom.

In large cities, the Telekom 5G transmits to 3.6 gigahertz (GHz), which offers high transmission rates but a short range. The 2.1 GHz frequency is used for the area coverage, the wave of which carries on and still offers enough bandwidth for fast internet. Here, telecommunications customers should now be able to surf at up to 225 megabits per second (Mbit / s). In urban areas, there should be a peak of 600-800 Mbit / s, according to Telekom, in the metropolises, transmission rates of up to one gigabit per second (Gbit / s) are possible via the 3.6 GHz frequency.

Huawei stays in business

The Group made a clear announcement regarding the security of the 5G network. Already in 2019, the decision was made to keep Chinese suppliers away from the safety-critical core network, which contains the central elements for controlling and processing data in the network. This also applies to the 5G core network, which is currently still being standardized.

As far as the access or antenna network from the radio masts and the associated transmitters and receivers are concerned, one cannot consider 4G and 5G in isolation, says Telekom. Technically, 5G is not an independent network, but is building new functions and technical features into the existing 4G network. So it is also not possible to upgrade the LTE masts with 5G components from a manufacturer from which the 4G technology does not already originate. However, this is also less problematic since no data is processed in the so-called Radio Access Network (RAN).

In today's antenna network, components from Ericsson and Huawei are mainly installed. They will also rely on 5G when expanding and have concluded new contracts accordingly. In order to achieve a greater variety of components in the medium term, Telekom supports the so-called Open-RAN initiative, which, among other things, is intended to make the technical infrastructure more independent of certain hardware.